


Dating Kise Ryouta

by jagaimocchi



Category: Kuroko no Basuke | Kuroko's Basketball
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Crack, Fluff and Smut, Happy Ending, Humor, Light Angst, M/M, MidoTaka & Kagakuro are very minor side pairings, Touou!Nijimura, aho's pov, aokaga is my ultimate brotp, everyone's a dork, no GoM but they're all connected by the bball network, notting hill au (at least thats what im calling it), probably, romcom
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-14
Updated: 2015-10-19
Packaged: 2018-04-20 20:13:40
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 28,144
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4800743
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jagaimocchi/pseuds/jagaimocchi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Aomine Daiki, ace of his university basketball team but otherwise normal guy, meets rising star Kise Ryouta who is bright, bewildering, and almost definitely madly in love with him. </p><p>Some nsfw (mainly chapter one, whoops and chpt 4); fluff galore (mainly the rest).</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Meeting Kise Ryouta

**Author's Note:**

> Hello, I'm new here. This was originally written for Aomine's birthday, but here I am posting Chapter One two weeks down the line. It's also my first time writing smut, so sorry for the poor quality orz.
> 
> Twenty is the age you become an adult in Japan, and the legal age to drink. All the cannon high schools are now universities. Enjoy!

“HAPPY BIRTHDAY!”

As Aomine caught the basketball that was thrown at his head, he couldn’t quite avoid the silly string that hit him right in the eye nor the flurry of party streamers that tangled themselves all over him. He laughed in genuine surprised.

“Don’t know what they tell you in the States but this isn’t my idea of a quick bowl of ramen, Kagami,” Aomine said, grinning at his best friend and flatmate who’d managed to dodge the barrage of celebratory garbage by using him as a human shield.

Kagami laughed, standing up to his full height and pushing Aomine through the doorway. “Ah well, guess we’ll have to postpone our one-on-one till tomorrow then.”

“Get your ass over here birthday boy, we’re getting you wasted!” His captain, Nijimura, called from the other end of the room. Aomine nodded with a grin, took off his shoes and stepped up onto the tatami flooring with Kagami following close behind him. Now that the surprise part was over, the boys in the room held nothing back.

It was noisy. It was clear from the vast array of snacks and empty glasses on the table that the party had started long before Aomine arrived. The room easily had around twenty people in it, not all of whom Aomine was sure he knew. He glanced around, recognising his team members—there was Sakurai, Wakamatsu, Imayoshi—and also some members of rival teams they’d met at competitions. Aomine raised an eyebrow at Kagami, head motioning slightly to the unfamiliar faces in the room, at which Kagami wiggled his eyebrows in reply and shrugged.

“Congratulations on turning twenty, big boy!” Nijimura said, flinging an arm around Aomine’s shoulders. “You’re officially an adult now! How’s it feel?”

“Er, pretty much the same as always?”

“That’s what I like to hear! Now we got you three beers already, so bottoms up! What do you want next? Tonight’s on your senpai, so order away!”

Aomine could barely keep up with his captain’s enthusiasm as bottles of beer were shoved into his hands. He barely noticed the smug look on Kagami’s face as he was forced to down his beers in one. He’d barely finished his third bottle when the waitress came in carrying a trayful of colorful cocktails Aomine didn’t know the name of.

The next few hours were a blur. There was a constant clinking of glasses, boisterous men singing songs—some drinking chants, some jingle from recent popular commercials, this one annoying pop song that they played in all the stores—and laughter all around. Aomine hiccupped, and laid his head down on the table to rest.

“Whoa there,” Kagami said, putting his hand on Aomine’s back, “Are you all right, Aho? I know it’s not your first time drinking, but you’re not looking too good. We can head back if you want?”

Aomine said nothing, not lifting his head from the table and squinting up at Kagami instead. The electric light behind him was far too bright and was starting to give him a headache.

“You can’t leave now, the party’s just getting started,” Imayoshi said from the other side of Kagami. “I got a text from Mibuchi just now. He’s bringing some _acquaintances_.”

“Ooo~!” The guys sat beside Imayoshi chimed.

“Are these acquaintances of Reo-nee girls?” One of them asked.

“He does some modelling occasionally right? Do you think they’re gunna be models?”

“Aw man, we could do with some female company right now!”

The guys chatted noisily, laughing and cheering each other on until Imayoshi turned to them with his trademark unmoving smile and said, “Mibuchi did say he was bringing some models, but I’m not sure they’ll be quite what you’re into.”

The guys paused, a confused look on their faces until they promptly forgot what they’d been talking about and moved onto a different topic of conversation. Aomine was too dazed to hear anything in the room anymore. He wasn’t sure it was fatigue that he was feeling. His stomach felt uneasy, like there was some sort of storm going on in there. He sort of wanted to hurl, but not enough for him to actually go and do it. It was a strange kind of queasiness—he had a feeling that if he stood up now he’d probably vomit. Preferably over Kagami. But he also had a feeling that the queasiness would go away if he just stayed there, watching the moths hover around that yellow light just above Kagami’s head.

He didn’t know how much time had passed when he heard the paper doors slide open. There was the sound of unfamiliar voices, some greetings being exchanged, and then the shuffle of socks on tatami, coming towards him. Aomine groaned slightly as he lifted his head from off the table.

“Hey Aho, you okay?” Kagami’s voice entered his right ear, but he didn’t feel like replying.

A man was seating himself across the table from Aomine. A man with blond hair and amber eyes, and a big ear-to-ear smile. He made himself comfortable, took a cup of _sake_ being handed to him from somebody Aomine gave no shits about, then looked Aomine straight in the eye.

“Aho, are you listening to me?”

Aomine was not. The man’s big smile faded into something more subtle, an almost secretive smile, almost curious. He tilted his head a little, his eyes half closing into something altogether more suggestive.

“Oi, Aho! All right, we’re going home. I’m getting your coat.”

Aomine wasn’t sure what expression he was making. The only thing he did know was that looking at that man’s face was making his horny. He felt an urge to get up and fix the growing discomfort in his trousers when he was saved the trouble by a sharp tug on his arm, pulling him to his feet.

Kagami threw Aomine’s arm around his shoulders and began to move towards the door.

“Nijimura-san, I’m gonna take this idiot home before he throws up all over this place and gets us kicked out.”  

“What?! But the night is still young! And it’s the Friday before the last weekend of the summer!” Nijimura complained loudly, red in the face but seemingly aware of his surroundings enough. He was going into the last semester of his final year of University; his final term as captain. His first semester as Captain had been the year that Aomine had joined the basketball team and boy had he been a handful. He’d broken at least fifty hoops in his first three months on the team which was a nightmare for the team’s finances. Nijimura remembered having to bump up the price of their game tickets just to cover the cost, and it was lucky that word of their incredible new player had spread so quickly or else those ridiculously priced tickets would have never sold.

“He’s gunna need longer than the weekend to recover at this rate,” Hyuuga, captain of Kagami’s team, Seirin University, laughed, his arm around his vice-captain, Kiyoshi. Kiyoshi, by far the most sober person in the room, looked up at Kagami with serene eyes and smiled, “I think it’s best you take him home.”

Chants of “take the baby home!” filled the room as people began to notice Aomine’s exit. Kagami laughed and moved Aomine across the room, saying goodbye on his behalf. It didn’t escape anyone’s notice that as he was being maneuvered towards the door, not once did Aomine’s blue eyes stray from the blond guy at the back of the room.

-x-

The next morning Aomine remembered barely anything except a big blond smile that made his nether regions feel amazingly awake. He’d never been so attracted to a man in his life. All his sexual fantasies until now had revolved around big boobs and Mai-chan. As he wandered into the kitchen where Kagami was already making blueberry pancakes, he mused over how he’d apparently stumbled on a new Type of his when Kagami shot him a look and almost threw his entire saucepan, pancake batter and all, at his face.

“At least have the decency to fix your morning wood before you come out here you bastard!”

Aomine couldn’t stop the oddly proud grin spreading across his face as he roared with laughter and returned to his bedroom. If there was anything he enjoyed more than blueberry pancakes it was making precious cinnamon bun Kagami feel hella awkward.

-x-

It was a month after the semester had started when Aomine bumped into the mysterious blond again. It was at the basketball team’s monthly social, and Nijimura had decided to take them to Kabuki-cho.

_“I thought I’d make this whole semester’s team social themes about me, as I’ll be leaving soon,” Nijimura had declared at their first team meeting of the semester, “So for this month’s social, we’re heading down to Tokyo’s very own Rainbow Town, Kabuki-cho! Make sure you get it in your diaries fellas, it’s compulsory attendance. If you can’t make it you’re doing ten extra laps around the gym per practice until the next social! Got that?”_

Aomine had never been to Kabuki-cho before but he’d heard plenty about it and not all of it was bad stuff. For one thing, he knew Satsuki liked to go there occasionally with her girl friends to check out the new hosts.

“Not sure it’s your scene exactly, Dai-chan,” She’d said when he’d announced that he was going, “But you’ll definitely have fun there. Let me know how it goes!”

And those were the only pearls of wisdom she left him with.

When Aomine first arrived in the Kabuki-cho club with the rest of his team, he felt like fresh meat in a zoo. Everywhere he walked people were eyeing him up, whispering something or other, and he was pretty sure that as he made his way to the bar someone had tried (and failed) to grope him.

“Geez this place is sleazy,” He muttered to himself, telling the barman he just wanted a beer.

“It’s all right if you give it a chance.” A voice said beside him. Aomine turned to face the speaker and was glad he didn’t have his drink yet or else he was sure he’d have spat it out, right into the stranger’s face.

“Kise Ryouta,” said the blond guy from the other night, “I believe we’ve met before.”

Aomine nodded slowly as his drink arrived. He could practically see the sparkles emulating from this ‘Kise Ryouta’ as he casually ordered a mojito. Kise turned to him and laughed and Aomine thought his heart was going to climb out of his throat and throw itself at the man.

“You weren’t very talkative last time either,” Kise said, standing his elbow on the counter and casually leaning against it. “But I guess that’s my bad. I did crash your birthday party.”

‘ _So he knew it was my birthday?’_ Aomine frowned. Kise glanced at his face and smiled wryly.

“Reo-nee brought me there. Said there was a big party for a hotshot basketball player’s birthday, but he didn’t tell me his name. I’m guessing he meant you though, right?”

Kise’s mojito arrived. Aomine nodded again, watching as Kise brought the mojito to his lips. Kise licked the rim of the glass before using his tongue to catch the straw in his mouth, fully acknowledging that Aomine was watching.

‘ _This guy..._ ’ Aomine thought, not entirely sure he was in the room anymore.

“So...are you going to tell me your name or are you going to stand there all night watching me suck on a straw?” Kise said, all humor and charm and allure. This time, Aomine laughed. It was the goofiest laugh that had ever come out of his mouth, one that came right from his diaphragm, but it was also one of the most genuine.

“Boy, you are full of yourself, aren’t you?” Aomine teased, but his voice wasn’t unkind. Kise pouted, his nostrils flaring slightly.

“I know what I want and I’m not afraid to get it,” He said, stirring his drink with his straw.

“Oh?” Aomine smirked, turning his full attention to the blond babe beside him. It was his turn to lean into the counter, propping himself up on his elbow so they were in much the same position. “So what do you want exactly?”

Kise eyed Aomine up and down and Aomine had to admit he didn’t entirely dislike the way those amber eyes explored his body. The message was clear, and Aomine, as a man who preferred actions over words, didn’t need to hear anything more.

“Aomine Daiki,” He said, leaning in closer to the man’s face. Their hair was almost touching. Aomine could feel Kise’s breath on him.

“Oh,” Kise said, “Nice to meet you, Aominecchi.”

“Aominecchi?”

He raised an eyebrow but dismissed the quirky nickname. The slight breathlessness in the blond’s voice was distracting—and hot. He could see the blond’s cheeks, faintly dusted pink under the dim light, and it was doing _things_ to his lower regions.   

They scanned each other’s faces, taking each other in, and it took all of Aomine’s self-control not to smash his face into the blond’s. After what felt like hours, the eyes that Aomine had been staring into crinkled around the edges as Aomine saw brilliantly white teeth emerge between moist pink lips.

“Hey Aominecchi,” The smile said, “Do you wanna dance?”

Aomine was no dancer, but Kise took his hand anyway and pulled him into the crowd. From the corner of his eye, Aomine could see some of his teammates—dancing with each other, dancing with random strangers—all shooting him a look that screamed ‘go get him tiger.’ Aomine felt awkward on the dancefloor at first: he wasn’t sure what to do with his body, where to put his feet or hands, until Kise took both his arms and wrapped them around himself. Aomine found his hands slipping naturally down to cup the curve of Kise’s ass. Kise’s hands trailed up Aomine’s chest and ended up by his jaw. His touch was almost ticklish but Aomine didn't care. Kise’s face was inches away from Aomine again, just as it had been by the bar, but this time, their entire bodies were touching, pressed up against one another in the middle of the dancefloor.

“You don’t know how to dance?” Kise muttered against Aomine’s lips.

“Nope,” Aomine mumbled back, completely distracted by how perfect Kise’s butt cheeks felt under his palms.

“Let me teach you,” Kise smiled, a hand loosely rubbing Aomine’s ear.

“What if I don’t wanna learn?” Aomine replied, and he can feel his hard-on and he’s pretty sure Kise can feel it too with how close they were then. Unfazed, however, Kise simply licked his lips.

“I’m sure you’d love the dance I have to teach you,” Kise said and Aomine couldn't take it anymore. He closed the practically non-existent gap between them and kissed Kise _hard_ , earning him a moan that made him squeeze Kise’s ass. Kise tasted of lime and Aomine never knew he liked citrus fruits until that moment.

Aomine wasn't sure how long they spent tongue-dancing on the dancefloor, but when they finally pulled apart a little, both a little giddy, Aomine could see how ravaged Kise’s lips looked even in the darkness, and he could feel his chest well up in pride. He dipped in again, working his lips along Kise’s neck as he muttered, “Let’s get out of here blondie.”

Kise giggled and pried Aomine’s hand from his butt, leading him towards the exit with such speed and smoothness that Aomine had just about enough time to find his captain in the crowd and signal that he was leaving. Nijimura looked kind of smug and mimed a wolf-whistle then dismissed him with a wave of his hand, and the night just kept getting better because Aomine knew he wouldn’t even get punishment laps for this.

They held hands as Kise motioned for a taxi and gave the address of his apartment. It wasn't too far from where they were and the taxi driver was playing some old music from the Showa period that was so not-sexy that ironically, Aomine felt even more turned on as the blond stroke his thigh dangerously close to the zipper of his pants. He noticed that Kise tipped big when they get out of the taxi and is even more surprised when he sees the apartment Kise’s taken them to.

“Are you a drug dealer or something?”

It was glitzy; it was spacious; he had a vase full of orchids in the hallway _. He had a hallway._

“Nope,” Kise laughed, turning on the lights and taking off his shoes. He stepped up from the entranceway where an unhealthy amount of shoes were, then turned around and pulled Aomine to him by the waist. In this position he was just a little taller than Aomine, and just to make sure Aomine noticed the height difference, Kise kissed his nose.

Aomine has never been kissed on the nose before and it was doing something weird to his heart. He was temporarily speechless as Kise beamed at him and moved further into the apartment, dashing into one of the adjacent rooms. Aomine took the time to undo his shoelaces. He didn't own any fancy shoes so he’d worn some old basketball sneakers to the club, much to the chagrin of his more fashionable teammates.

_“You’re lucky Mibuchi can’t make it today,” Imayoshi had giggled, “He’d have your head on a plate for wearing those old sneakers to his favorite Kabuki-cho hang out.”_

A few seconds later after Aomine successfully removed his sneakers, Kise reappeared with a bottle of lube and some condoms in his hand.

“Just gonna borrow these off my flatmate,” Kise hummed as he took Aomine’s hand again and guided him into a separate room. It was dark as Kise kissed him passionately, shutting the door behind them. Aomine had no time to take in his surroundings. He was faintly aware that Kise’s movements were guiding him towards a king-size bed by some tall windows where the blinds weren’t shut so moonlight and city lights were mingling together, flooding into the room with reckless abandon. He was faintly aware that this room smelled of hair products and strawberries; but when he found himself lying on the bed with Kise on top of him, already unbuttoning his shirt as he shamelessly explored Aomine’s mouth, the only thing he could smell was Kise.

Aomine wasn't a virgin, but he’d never done it with a man—and certainly not one so eager for him before. His moment of hesitation didn't go unnoticed as Kise pulled away and sat back, catching his breath as he perched on top of Aomine’s crotch.

“Are you all right?” Kise asked, big round eyes looking down at Aomine with concern. Aomine was a little distracted by how swollen Kise’s lips look—the man looked like someone had tried to eat him and Aomine couldn't get the lewd thoughts out of his head.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” he finally managed to say, just as Kise looked like he was going to get off him. The blond beamed at him again before dipping back down to continue their make-out session. It was just as Kise unzipped Aomine's trousers and stroked against his boxers that Aomine decided it was probably better to say something sooner rather than later.

“I, er,” He said, making Kise stop just as he was about to go in for another kiss. Kise tilted his head questioningly, and Aomine couldn’t help but find it adorable.

“I—well, I’ve, er...” Aomine couldn’t bring himself to say it, so Kise tried to help him along, eyes as round as saucers.

“Aominecchi, you gorgeous hunk of a man. Are you a virgin?!”

Thrown by the sudden compliment, Aomine blushed furiously as Kise climbed off him in shock. He grabbed Kise’s arms and pulled, making him tumble back on top of him.

“No, I’m not a virgin!” He growled, one arm moving to rub the back of his neck, “I just. I’ve never done this with a man before.”

Kise gasped, “So you mean I’m popping your gay cherry?”

Aomine’s frown only deepened and he was sure he looked like a grumpy child, but Kise didn't look too bothered by it. Instead he laughed and kissed Aomine again, except this time his kiss was soft and somewhat gentle. Aomine would have been insulted if he wasn’t so incredibly turned on by the sudden change in pace.    

“Don’t worry Aominecchi, I’ll teach you everything you need to know.”

The beautiful blond man laughed and Aomine wanted to punch him but couldn't because he was too captivated by how the blond unbuttoned his shirt in record speed and slid it off his shoulders effortlessly. His skin was a brilliant white, completely unmarked, shining under the moonlight. Kise dipped down, pressing his body against Aomine as he kissed him, softly but deeply, making Aomine groan in spite of himself. He could feel Kise’s erection against his own and unable to resist, he thrust his pelvis up against the other man's. When Kise gasped against his mouth, Aomine smirked and mumbled, “That’s for being so full of yourself.”

Kise giggled and it sounded like starlight. He gave Aomine one peck on the lips before he began leaving a trail of kisses along Aomine’s jawline, moving down, sucking slightly on a nipple before heading further south. Aomine knew what was going to happen next when Kise’s face stopped just inches away from his cock.

“As it’s your first time, I’ll bottom,” Kise said, winking, “But first, I want to give you a treat for being so sweet.”

Aomine wanted to kick Kise in the shins for being so cheeky, but he couldn’t because before he knew it this man had his cock in his mouth and was working his magic on it. It was warm, wet, and Aomine could feel Kise taking him in deeper and deeper. When it hit Aomine that _this man has no gag reflex_ he thrust a few times and surrendered to the pleasure, blurting out a quick apology before cumming straight into Kise’s mouth. He couldn’t believe how quickly he came, but Kise was grinning when he sat up and didn’t hesitate to give Aomine a taste of himself, gently kissing Aomine as he stroked his hair short blue hair.

“Sorry, I’m not usually this, er, quick,” Aomine said, and he wasn't used to feeling so embarrassed either—but then again he wasn't used to being petted and treated like a goddamn princess.

“It’s okay, it’s my pleasure,” Kise said, his smile so infectious that Aomine couldn’t help but smile back. They carried on kissing, quietly, _tenderly_ , until Aomine started to feel little Aomine stir again.

“That didn’t take too long,” Kise hummed, deliberately pressing his still erect lower half into Aomine and moaning quietly as he did so, encouraging Aomine’s recovering hard-on. He smiled seductively, grabbing the lube from the bedside table.

“Give me your hand,” Kise ordered. There was something in his eyes now that told Aomine the gentle part of the course was over, and once again, Aomine couldn’t help but feel ridiculously turned on by how _flexible_ this man was.

Aomine obeyed, displaying one hand to Kise. Kise swathed his fingers in lube before putting the cap back onto the bottle and returning it to the bedside table. He sat back, smirked at Aomine, unzipped his trousers and then took both his trousers and his underwear off in one swift fluid motion. Aomine couldn’t tell what he was more impressed by: Kise’s rapidity, his skill at taking his clothes off, or his fit as fuck body, but he did know that he had somehow hit the jackpot, because here in front of him was a fully erect fiendishly beautiful man who wanted him to put his cock in him. Aomine was genuinely speechless as Kise beamed once again, his teeth reflecting the moonlight. He leaned in towards Aomine, gave him a chaste kiss, then guided Aomine’s ready hands towards his hole.

“Are you ready Aominecchi?” Kise breathed into him, all smiles and amazingness and Aomine didn’t know what to do but nod.

Kise kissed him again, this time _reassuringly_ , as he pushed one of Aomine’s fingers into his hole and let out a little moan. It took some time before he guided another finger in, but all the while Aomine didn’t look away from Kise’s face, not even once. He was memorizing it—taking in the face Kise pulled when he grunted every time he pushed himself back against Aomine’s fingers; the way his lips remain parted, just enough for Aomine to want to pry his mouth open with his tongue and smooch him senseless.

 _He’s gorgeous_ , Aomine thought. _He’s so fucking gorgeous._

By the time they got to the third finger, Aomine’s patience was wearing thin and all he wanted to do was thrust his member inside Kise until they were both sweaty and sticky and rolling in each other’s cum.

“Come on, are you ready yet?” He muttered, “You’re fucking yourself on my fingers but I wanna fuck you already. Come oooonnn.”

Kise laughed, pink in the face and glowing. He pulled himself off of Aomine’s fingers and reached for the condom by the lube. It took little to no time to put it on and only a further millisecond and a half for Aomine to roll on top of Kise and push himself completely inside, peppering Kise’s neck with bites and kisses as the blond moaned without reserve.

-x-

“Shit, wake up. Wakeupwakeupwakeup.”

Aomine groaned. He hadn’t slept enough. His whole body ached. He didn’t have basketball practice that day and that meant he could sleep until noon and miss all the class he wanted.

“Shit, wake up! He’s home, he’s gonna kill me, oh my god.”

Aomine’s eyes shot open as he felt someone pinch his nipples.

“Fuck, what the—

Desperate amber eyes met blue and Aomine remembered where he was.

“Get in the closet.” Kise said, already up and pulling Aomine to his feet. It was cold and Aomine really didn’t feel like moving but Kise obviously didn’t care, stuffing Aomine, duvet and all, into his walk-in closet. There was plenty of space there for Aomine to feel irritated, still half asleep, as he waited for Kise to come back and tell him he could get out. He could hear snippets of what seemed like a perfectly normal conversation between two men close-by.

“Did you have a good evening yesterday?”

“Yeah, how about you?”

“Yeah, I had a lot of fun!”

“Where did you end up?”

“Oh you know, that Kabuki-cho place you like...”

“Oh? Ryou-chan, you didn’t do anything naughty there did you...”

“No! Reo-nee, you should have more faith in me than that!”

Aomine’s ears pricked up. Reo-nee? What was Mibuchi Reo doing here? Aomine tried to remember whether he’d heard rumors about Mibuchi having a boyfriend, but found that he hadn’t been bothered enough about Mibuchi to listen to anything about his life.

 _Am I a homewrecker?!_ Aomine thought, panicking and feeling the anger build up inside him.

“Do you have a busy day today, Reo-nee?”

“Hmm, well I have basketball practice with the Rakuzan guys and then a shoot after, so I guess you could say I’m busy...But it’s really just a normal day, isn’t it?” There was an exaggerated laugh that made Aomine’s eyebrows twitch. “You’ll have this sort of lifestyle soon though, Ryou-chan! Have you gone out to the store to get the magazine yet?!”

“No, not yet! Actually, I just woke up, hahaha!”

Kise’s laugh sounded horribly fake. There was a pause after he finished speaking when Aomine could just feel the tension between the two men, leaking its way through the closet doors and under his snug duvet that smelled of Kise (and a little bit of himself). He was about to smile at the notion, when he heard Mibuchi’s voice, strained and clear.

“Ryouta. There’s a man in there isn’t there.”

“No!! Why would you even—I mean—no, don’t go in!!”

Aomine froze as he heard the stomp of the Rakuzan shooting guard come closer to him. He remembered the way Mibuchi looked on the court—how intimidating he was when he was mad—and wondered if Mibuchi looked the same right now.

“All right Ryouta, where is he?!” Aomine could hear the sound of pillows being lifted then tossed aside. There was no duvet for Mibuchi to look under because that duvet was wrapped around Aomine. And without it, Aomine was as naked as the day he was born.

A further three stomps and the white doors of the walk-in wardrobe flung open. Aomine was too tired and confused to move or do anything but stare back at Mibuchi Reo, who was looking at him like he’d just seen a ghost.

“Ryou-chan. You didn’t.”

Kise looked sheepish, and Aomine could see the faint blush on his cheeks.

“Hey Mibuchi, long time no see.” Aomine said, waving his free hand. His other was preoccupied with holding the duvet around him. “How’s Akashi? Is he doing good?”

There was a flare of the nostrils and Aomine forgot that _this guy is huge_ as he grabbed his duvet-ed self and threw him out of the wardrobe. Kise was silent, looking sort of scared, and Aomine was glad the duvet was there to soften the blow as he stumbled into the bedframe.

“Get. Out.” Mibuchi practically spat at Aomine.

“All right, geez, I didn’t realise you were such a prude.” Aomine tutted and looked around for his clothes. He was surprised at how calm he was acting in a situation like this, when this acquaintance of his was obviously furious at him. Then again, he had no idea why he was so intensely mad to begin with. “It’s not like you guys are together or anything right? We’re just two guys having fun, that’s all.”

Mibuchi looked all but ready to erupt when Kise finally stepped past him hurriedly, finger raised to his lips to motion Aomine to shush. He located Aomine’s clothes without a moment's hesitation then started pulling at the duvet to move.

“Just give us five minutes, Reo-nee,” Kise said calmly, pushing Aomine towards the bathroom door, “Five minutes, then you can scold me all you want.”

When Aomine stole a glance at Mibuchi, he saw how stony his expression was, how his lips were drawn thin. It was then that the asshole in Aomine kicked in, and as he let the duvet fall to the ground revealing his naked butt to Mibuchi, he couldn’t help the joy that rose up inside him when Mibuchi screamed in frustration. He glanced at Kise, saw him roll his eyes then smirked. After a few shoves, Kise successfully pushed Aomine into his en suite bathroom.

“Why did you do that?! Now he’s doubly as mad!” Kise hissed once he'd bolted the door. Aomine was naked in front of him, but Kise was too annoyed to notice.

“I don’t know what the big deal is,” Aomine complained, hand instinctively moving to rub the back of his neck, “Look, you guys really aren’t together right?”

Kise paused and pouted, looking sulky. He shook his head.

“And you’re not seeing anyone at the moment?”

Kise looked away and shook his head again.

“And you consented yesterday to us having slept together?”

Kise glanced at Aomine and nodded curtly.

“Then what the hell is the _Big Deal_?”

There was silence as Kise’s golden eyes explored the tiles on his bathroom floor. The man that's stood there in front of Aomine in an over-sized tee-shirt now seemed a world away from the man who seduced him on the dancefloor yesterday. He was evidently nervous, and if Aomine didn’t know better, he looked kind of sad.

Time passed and listening to the ticking of the bathroom clock was getting painful. Aomine didn't know what to do if Kise didn't say something soon. Luckily, Kise seemed to have resolved something inside himself, because he stood up straight and pulled himself up to his full height so that he was almost as tall as Aomine. Kise looked him square in the eyes and then said, “Promise you’ll believe everything I say.”

Aomine wasn't sure what game Kise was playing or whether he had any other options, so he nodded. Kise took a deep breath.

“My name’s Kise Ryouta and I got voted Number One Rising Star by Nippon Entertainment yesterday. I’ve been modelling since my high school days and building my portfolio so you could say this is my big break. I have three separate meetings today to secure a few promotion deals and the commercial for my first television drama is airing tonight from 6pm. So if you want to know what the Big Deal is, then I’m sorry to tell you but _I’m_ sorta the _Big Deal_.”

As he ranted at Aomine, Kise dressed him like a professional, threading his arm through the sleeves of his shirt effortlessly. By the time he’d finished his speech, Aomine only had his socks left to put on. Kise dangled them in front of his face and continued, “I’m forbidden to see anyone. I’m forbidden from sleeping with anyone. I was stupid and went out and saw you, remembered you from the party, and just wanted to celebrate my success with someone. So if you could please keep your mouth shut about this, or pretend it never happened or something, then that’d be great.”

Aomine was still very confused but he was already being guided out of the bathroom, past a still pretty pissed off looking Mibuchi and towards the exit. The apartment looked even more swish in the daylight, and it was entirely believable that this was the home of a rising superstar.

Aomine found himself just outside the apartment, standing on the welcome mat, still shell shocked and holding socks in one hand and shoes in the other. He was too perplexed to be indignant or mad; he just stood there, watching as Kise shut the door on him—but left a tiny crack open before he shut it entirely. His head was dipped low and he peered up at Aomine with large, round eyes, and a small, almost pained, smile.

“Pleasedon’thatemebutMibuchiismymentorandhe’dkillmeifIwasnicetoyoucallKazunaricchiandgetmynumberokaybye.”

And Aomine wished he’d recorded the last part before the door was shut too loudly and too firmly in his face.


	2. Kise Fucking Ryouta

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Aomine tries to track down Kise Ryouta, even if it's just to punch him in the face.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I updated the tags - there'll be some very mild but clear KagaKuro in the next chapter, and some almost non-existent MidoTaka in this one. 
> 
> I firmly believe that if they'd gone to the same middle school, Takao and Kise would have been BFFs. I like to think Midorima is the 'chill' part of their trio.
> 
> Thanks to those who left kudos and commented! I hope you like this chapter.
> 
> 11/11/2015: Small edits to this chapter because I realised that Momoi would have definitely remembered both Midorima and Takao had they played against them during middle school. As such, I've changed how they know each other a little, but it's not central to the plot at all so for those who read the previous version, with any luck you should barely notice the difference...

Aomine’s immediate reaction was anger. On the train back home he was fuming.

“Fucking ‘I’m a rising superstar’ doesn’t even have the decency to give me breakfast...” He muttered, tapping his foot grumpily and cursing himself for not having swung by a convenience store before he boarded. It was still the early hours and there was no one in the carriage but a nice-looking old lady with a blue shopping trolley.

“Fucking ‘don’t hate me’ then he slams the door in my face like he’s not a massive shit,” Aomine continued, “NO ONE slams the door in Aomine Daiki’s face. The only one who can slam a door in my face is me, the douchebag...”

Aomine’s stomach grumbled loudly, catching the attention of the nice old lady who sat at the other end of the carriage. She looked at him and gave a friendly smile, the wrinkles of her face folding around her eyes serenely. Aomine glanced at her, seemed to remember where he was, then huffed grumpily and turned his gaze outside the window. It was the worst decision he could have made and Aomine was sure some holy spirit was out to get him. He saw it only for a moment but he’d never mistake that face: there was a flash of white teeth and gold hair—a close-up, no less—advertising some new television drama starting the following month. That was all Aomine could read in the time the train sped past, but he knew that it wouldn’t be the last time he saw that billboard. Usually he was pretty oblivious to the kind of advertising going on around him. If it wasn’t about basketball or Mai-chan, he wasn’t really interested—but if this guy’s drama was going to be playing in a month, and if he really was The Next Big Thing, his face was going to be in the department stores Satsuki made him walk around, it'd probably be in the convenience store windows, maybe even in the toilets. In the end, Aomine knew he wouldn’t be able to ignore it.

Scenes from the previous evening came back to him, and he remembered the way Kise licked his lips after they both came in a heated mess onto his bed, breaths mingling as they kissed over and over, appetites not quite satiated even though they were both spent. He cursed under his breath. The worst thing was, he regretted nothing. And he really did want to find this somebody-cchi who Kise had told him to contact for his number right before he shut the door on him.

“Kazu...nari...cchi?” Aomine leaned back in his seat, staring at the air vents above him. Did he even know anyone called Kazunari? He wondered if he should text Satsuki about it—she’d definitely know if he'd ever met anyone called Kazunari—but then she’d want to know why, and then he’d have to tell her he wanted to get this guy’s number, and then she’d find out it was _Kise Fucking Ryouta_ and God knows what she’d do next. Aomine thought she’d either go tomato-red and faint, or scream so loudly an eardrum would burst. Either way, he’d feel awkward talking about it.

As his stomach gave another groan, Aomine slouched further and further into his seat. The silence in the carriage was deafening. The old lady started humming quietly in her corner of the carriage, seemingly unaware of Aomine’s sour mood despite his not-so-subtle and not-so-under-his-breath utterances. The stillness of the air around him as the train raced through a tunnel did nothing but make Aomine feel restless. He let out a cry of frustration, making the old lady jump as he reached into his coat pocket and furiously punched out a text.

Aomine: Do I know a Kazunari

It immediately showed ‘Read.’ The reply however came a minute later.

Satsuki: Good morning to you too, Dai-chan.

Aomine groaned. He wasn’t in the mood for civilities. Why did people even bother with civilities? They were just a waste of time and Aomine much preferred being direct. As he was about to abandon his plan (though ‘texting Satsuki’ was about as far as that plan went), his phone vibrated in his hand.

Satsuki: Yes, you do. But I’m not telling you how or who he is until you tell me why.

Aomine decided to get straight to the point.

Aomine: He knows Kise Ryouta.

Satsuki: Yes. And?

Aomine was shocked. Why wasn’t she more surprised? This was Kise Ryouta, a supposedly up and coming celebrity, and Satsuki loved her fair share of celebrity gossip. Ergo, _she must know who he is._ Right?

Aomine: U no Kise?

Satsuki: I’ve heard of him.

Satsuki: He’s getting really famous now right? We saw him sometimes back in middle school.

Satsuki: You don’t remember?

Aomine blinked at the screen. What. The. Fuck.

Aomine: He went to the same middle school???

Satsuki: No. But he was on the team of that school we used to have friendly games with. I spoke to him a few times back then, but I haven’t seen him since.

Aomine wasn’t sure how to take this news. He tried his hardest to think back to his middle school days but it was all a blur. He remembered being in a very dark place at the end of middle school and only really getting out of it when he met Kagami in high school. Kagami had been the only one who could beat him (just the once though, Aomine reminded himself), and the crushing shock of defeat had ironically brought color back into his life. But before that, everything was black and white, and tediously monotonous. No matter how hard he thought about it, he didn’t remember ever seeing a spatter of gold.

Satsuki: Why are you so interested in Kise Ryouta?

Aomine gulped, his fingers hovering above his phone screen. Eventually, he entered,

Aomine: I met him yesterday but didn’t ask his number.

He knew he sounded suspicious, and he knew that Satsuki must remember that it was his night out in Kabuki-cho yesterday so there was a high likelihood that she'd put two and two together, so it surprised him when after a thirty second pause, she replied without question.

Satsuki: You know a few Kazunaris, but the one you probably want is Takao Kazunari. He was on the same team as Kise-kun back in middle school. From what I remember they seemed to get along well.

Aomine paused, trying to find a memory that would at least give him a face to attach the name to. Typically, however, he remembered nothing, and as if by some telekinesis, Satsuki continued,

Satsuki: I think Takao-kun goes to Shuutoku University now. I’ll get in touch with Midorin and get his number for you.

The awe and surprise that reverberated in Aomine’s head was loud and distracting. He couldn't bring himself to type anything in reply and again, Satsuki saved him from the trouble.

Satsuki: I want those shoes I was talking to you about the other day. And a free meal next time we go out for dinner. And I get to choose the place.

Satsuki: Also.

Satsuki: You’re welcome.

The grin that spread on Aomine’s face was telling. He couldn't control the joy that charged through his veins and took hold of his whole being. Even his hunger had subsided. As he glanced out of the train window and saw a streak of gold, he smirked.

_‘I’m gunna punch him in the face next time I see him.’_

-x-

It was a more complicated process than Aomine had hoped. As it turned out, Midorima was extremely unwilling to give out his friend’s phone number, saying that he ‘respects other people’s privacy’ and ‘doesn’t just give out numbers on a whim.’ It wasn’t until this Takao himself took Midorima’s phone and texted Satsuki his details that they’d managed to get in touch with him.

“Yeah, Shin-chan’s a bit funny about stuff like privacy,” Takao said when Satsuki decided it was better to meet in person so arranged a meeting that Aomine didn’t agree to. “I think Oha Asa said he should be ‘conservative with information’ this week, isn’t that right Shin-chan?”

“Oha Asa said Cancers should beware of prying eyes,” Midorima said, clearly embarrassed even though his voice was cool, “And she said Scorpios should watch out for suspicious activity too.”

Takao’s laughter filled the Maji Burger cubicle they were seated in. This branch of Maji Burger was equidistant from the campuses of Touou U and Shuutoku U, and as such was popular with students from both universities.

“D’aw Shin-chan, you care about my wellbeing?”

Midorima gave Takao a frosty look before turning to Satsuki and declaring, “Takao and I are very busy with practice right now. As I'm sure you're aware, it's the National Meet soon, the biggest tournament for University basketball teams in Autumn. Can you get on with whatever you wanted to talk about that was so important we couldn’t discuss it on the phone?”

Satsuki beamed, and like a proud parent she placed a hand on Aomine’s arm and exclaimed excitedly, “Dai-chan’s in love!”

Both Takao and Aomine spat out their drinks, causing a flood on the table. A waitress came rushing over, asking if everything was okay at which Satsuki, laughing and clearly enjoying herself, apologized and asked for some napkins. Midorima’s face was bright red and Takao was holding his stomach as he laughed, almost in tears.

“The fuck, Satsuki?!” Aomine turned to his childhood friend, not even bothering to restrain the look of panic that must have arrested his face. She’d invited him this morning to go meet Takao at the Maji Burger, saying that it’d be easier to speak to Takao in person. Aomine had disagreed, saying it would almost definitely be easier to text, or use some other platform that could be quick and to the point, but Satsuki had bribed him with a free lunch and a free pass next time she needed someone to go underwear shopping with her. Never had she mentioned that she thought Aomine was _in love._

“We’re talking about Ryou-chan, right?” Takao said once his laughter had subsided. He still looked as though he was about to burst into fits of laughter though; a striking contrast to Midorima, who looked like he could die right there at the table.

“What’s so damn funny?” Aomine snarled, clearly flustered and frustrated.

Takao snorted, trying to hold back a chuckle, and it was Midorima’s turn to scold him with a curt ‘Takao’. Patting Midorima on the arm as if to dismiss him, Takao coughed and recomposed himself.

“Ryou-chan's not good at being subtle about these things. He’s been skirting around ‘someone unknown’ getting in touch with me for ages, finding new and inventive ways to ask me if anyone ‘unusual’ has gotten in touch,” Takao explained, “The first time, he said he was getting spammed with messages from people he didn’t know on his personal phone, so had I also had anyone I didn't know message me. The second time, he asked me if I’d checked my ‘other’ inbox because his messages apparently weren’t getting through, and do you know what he said yesterday? He said that someone had called to try and con him, so he no longer accepted numbers that weren’t already registered on his phone and he ‘was curious about if I did the same.’”

Takao chuckled merrily, the cheerful noise bouncing off the walls and reverberating in Aomine’s ears, much to his annoyance. He scowled, not sure whether he was happy the pretty boy seemed so keen to get in touch or whether he was still too pissed off to feel pleased. Takao’s laughter died away as he looked Aomine straight in the eye, his face deadly serious. “Looks like Ryou-chan has the hots for you. So what are you planning on doing about it?”

Aomine hadn’t really planned that far ahead, so he said the first thing that came to mind.

“I’m going to punch him in the face.”

Satsuki slapped him hard on the arm and Takao burst out laughing again. Midorima looked unimpressed.

“I didn’t think Ryou-chan was into that sorta stuff,” Takao winked, “But really. I know he can be a bit bewildering, and more so if he fancies you, but he’s a good guy.”

Takao paused then added, almost as an afterthought, “He’s also pretty beautiful, and getting really rich now that his popularity is sky rocketing, so you’re a lucky man for having someone like him dig you.”

“Tch,” Aomine clicked his tongue, perfectly aware of how rude a gesture it was. He was Aomine Daiki. Kise Ryouta was lucky to have _him_ dig him. As Aomine took a double-take on the thought he just had, Satsuki decided to throw her opinion on the table.

“You know, this is going to sound crazy, but I remember speaking to Kise-kun back in middle school. He asked about you, Dai-chan. He was so impressed by your shooting style, and he said he wanted to ask you for tips even though he was on the opposite team. He was pretty keen to know you then, but that was when you pretty much hated everyone and barely spoke to _me_ so... Anyway, even if you don’t remember him, he must remember you!”

“Kise has always had a strange fascination with you, Aomine.” Midorima said matter-of-factly, pushing his glasses back onto the bridge of his nose. “He talked about you nonstop for a few months after he watched your first game.”

"Yeeah, he did go on and on about some basketball God," Takao nodded, then offered as an explanation, "Shin-chan went to a much _grander_ school than the one Ryou-chan and I went to, but we'd see him a lot on the way back from school and somehow or other we all started playing basketball together. I think Ryou-chan managed to slip your name into almost every conversation we had about basketball since seeing your game and maybe our exams in April."

“Oh God, is Kise-kun Dai-chan’s stalker?!” Satsuki held a hand over her mouth in shock. Takao snorted and shook his head.

“He’s a weirdo, but he’s not a stalker. He has a few stalkers though—you might wanna watch out for those,” Takao smiled fondly at Aomine. Aomine, caught off guard by the affection in Takao’s eyes, couldn’t seem to string together any words. “I’ll give you his personal number and a bit of advice. He likes honesty. In his business, it’s all smoke and mirrors so in his personal life he tries to keep it as smoke free as possible. You seem like an honest man, Aomine-kun." He paused, then added with a smirk. "I can see why he likes you.”

Aomine could feel the heat rising in his cheeks and Midorima looked pissed off to the tenth degree as he growled, “Takao. We’re leaving.”

“Aw, Shin-chan, are you feeling left out? I can see why people like you too!” Takao laughed, sticking out his tongue playfully, but started putting on his jacket to leave regardless. He scribbled down a number on a napkin, folded it in half then handed it over to Aomine. “Good luck, Aomine-kun~! We’ll see you around.”

Aomine stared at the numbers on the napkin in front of him blankly as Satsuki hummed happily beside him.

-x-

Aomine was disappointed in himself when the first thing he did on meeting Kise again wasn’t punch him in the face, but stammer an embarrassingly inarticulate ‘Hey-up.’ He had meant to say Hello, but then he decided to go for Hey, and then for some reason he’d ended up attaching ‘up’ because ‘what up’ (which he never, ever said) had decided to barge to the front of the line. Kise, his blond hair covered by a black beanie, tugged his face mask down to reveal a dazzling smile, and for some reason Aomine no longer had control over his faculties. He stood there, unsure what his face was doing but figured it must have been doing something because Kise blushed when he looked at him.

“There’s this café down the road I want to take you to,” Kise eventually said, turning left as they headed out of the station. The station opened out onto a main road where cute boutiques and independent stores lined the streets. Aomine didn't know the area too well, but he was vaguely aware that if you carried on walking down the road you'd reach one of the most prestigious universities in Japan. He wanted to ask if Kise went there, and Kise must have read his mind or something because he said, out of nowhere, “I don’t go here. My grades are nowhere near good enough. But I like this place and it has lots of cute shops and cafes!”

Never in his life did Aomine think he’d go on an...excursion with someone who liked cute shops and cafes. Never in his life did he think he’d give someone like that his time of day. So it surprised him when he obediently followed Kise without so much as a swear or a grunt. It surprised him even more when Kise stopped in front of an average-looking café with no frills or cute ornaments lining the store window.

“I came here the other day with Kazunaricchi and I immediately thought of you.”

Kise beamed at Aomine then beamed at the waiter, blinding him so he blinked mindlessly at them before coming to his senses and offering them a table, his face appropriately flushed. The interior was stoic. A soft brown shade of wood lined the walls and the floor was a plush oak that echoed women’s footsteps as they walked over it in high-heels. An array of plants, all varying heights, decorated the entrance to the cafe, and tall glass windows let natural light filter in so the place was comfortably lit. The atmosphere was inviting and warm, and though the interior was deeper than one would imagine when seeing the venue from outside, it was neither too large nor too small. It was cosy: the sort of place you'd hope to stumble across on a cold winter's day when all you want is a hot chocolate and a hug. There was a bar area tucked away in the corner where you could order either an alcoholic beverage or a Turkish coffee, and plush sofas - the kind you'd sink into - formed a ring around a large coffee table that housed photobooks of celebrities and magazines on interior design.

It was fashionable and tasteful, and Aomine thought, there's nothing in this place that should remind Kise of him.

“It’s because the walls are brown isn’t it.” He said dryly.

Kise laughed and nodded, “Bingo!”

Aomine couldn’t help but snort at how ridiculous this guy was. They didn’t know each other—didn’t pretend to know each other—but for some reason they could joke and chat and it wasn't awkward (or at least, not until Aomine forgot how words worked and then his face did that _thing_ it must do that made Kise blush when he looked at him). It was after they ordered from the waiter (a hazelnut chai latte for Kise and a black coffee for Aomine) that Kise laced his hands together, sat up straight and looked Aomine in the eye. His face was pink but there was no hesitation in his voice when he said, “I really, really like you.”

There was a strange gurgling sound at the back of Aomine's throat as he physically struggled to produce words. He hadn't been expecting such a sudden confession. He couldn't believe this man’s guts, and then before he could even think of responding he choked on his own spit, coughing and spluttering as Kise reached across the table, patting him on the shoulder. Aomine held out his hands, tried to indicate that he was okay, and used the few seconds he had spluttering to try and organize his thoughts. It didn't help that his heart was doing that wild leaping thing it had been doing since Kise happened, and even when he'd calmed down and drained the glass of water the blushing waiter had brought over, he was still speechless. As though to confirm what they had been talking about before Aomine had so dramatically interrupted the flow of their conversation, Kise said again quite simply, "I really, really like you."

Aomine waited for a ‘but’. He was 99% sure there had to be one. When it didn’t come, his frown deepened, and he was so frustrated he almost snarled when he said, “But...?”

Kise blinked at him, tilting his head in a way that made Aomine want to throw the menu at him.

“But...?” Kise repeated, confused.

“But!” Aomine insisted. “But!!”

It was Kise’s turn to frown this time. “But what?”

“You know what!” Aomine slammed his fist down on the table, attracting the attention of those around them. Kise smiled apologetically on Aomine’s behalf but didn't seem fazed by Aomine’s outburst. He tilted his head to the other side, then used his finger to trace circles on the table. “I guess if there was a But, it’d be but I can’t date you. Or should I say, I’m not allowed to date you. But I mean, that doesn’t change the fact that I like you. So I don’t really see why it’s relevant here.” Kise paused, as though considering something, then added, “Do you like me?”

Aomine wasn’t expecting to be asked so directly. The movies didn’t do it like this. The movies took fucking forever. It’d start, and they’d be idiots and not realize they liked each other, and then they’d play some games of I-chase-you-no-you-chase-me, and then eventually, right at the end, they’d realize they’d been in love this whole fucking time and it was about time they got hitched—or something. Kise glanced at Aomine’s face when he didn't get a response, then pouted. “If you say you don’t like me, I won’t believe you.”

Aomine didn't understand. He laughed because he didn't understand.

“How are you so sure I like you? Just because you’re some famous person doesn’t mean I like you.”

“That’s got nothing to do with it,” Kise said dismissively. He grinned at Aomine and continued, “It’s because I’m not taking no for an answer!”

Aomine was pretty sure he should be freaked out and running by now. But instead, he asked, “How long have you liked me?”

He knew he’d hit the nail on the head when Kise fell silent. All of a sudden conversations from the people around them filtered into their little bubble, accentuating the silence between then. Kise looked down at the table, and all Aomine could see were the bright pink tips of his ears, sticking out from beneath his black beanie.

“I know you’ve known about me since middle school,” Aomine said, his voice dripping with arrogance but the sound of his heartbeat ringing in his ears, “Satsuki and Midorima told me so. So spit it out. Are you a stalker or what?”

“No! I’m not!” Kise’s head snapped up, a look of pure indignation in his eyes that made Aomine want to pinch his cheeks and mock him. “Midorimacchi was probably just talking about that time I saw your basketball game, and—

Kise stopped, as though thinking better of continuing. Aomine decided to milk this for all it was worth.

“And...? You know, you’re not doing a great job of convincing me you’re not my stalker...”

“And!! And...it was amazing. And I fell in love with basketball.” Kise practically sighed when the words ‘love’ and ‘basketball’ fell out of his mouth. He smiled shyly at Aomine, playing with the bracelets on his wrist and Aomine suddenly found himself captivated by the gentle movement of Kise’s fingertips as they rubbed the beads soothingly. “I saw you play a game against my school, and that’s when I decided to join my basketball team. Your freeform shot was so cool. It just keeps getting better actually. I’m a lot busier these days but when I have time I go to your campus to watch your games and the way you just take control of the ball and the court...! It’s so amazing. I just. I can’t. I don’t know.”

Kise was a jumble of words. Aomine felt his chest tighten. A part of him was still a bit freaked out that Kise knew so much about him—but another part of him (more specifically his ego) was definitely swelling up in pride. Aomine liked to believe he wasn't generally shy, least of all about his basketball skills, and it was clear that up and coming idol Kise Ryouta was a big, big fan of his.

“You’re such a stalker,” Aomine managed to say after a moment of silence, chuckling a little.

The waiter brought their drinks over as Kise pouted at Aomine again, looking unimpressed. “Am not. I admit I was a little obsessed back in middle school, but I didn’t like, follow you around or anything...I just saw your matches. A lot of matches. And wanted to play against you.”

“Did you ever?” Aomine felt bad that he had to ask but he honestly didn’t remember. Kise blinked at him in evident surprise, then said slowly, “Yes. And I thought you probably wouldn’t remember, but _wow_ , I can’t believe you really don’t remember.”

“Eh, I was in a funny place back then,” Aomine said sheepishly, looking away.

“Midorimacchi said you were an asshole,” Kise declared. He leaned his upper body towards Aomine, wearing a soft expression that held Aomine captive when he looked back at him. They stared at one another for what felt like an eternity before Kise said brightly, “Well I’m so happy to meet you properly at last! When Reo-nee said that he was going to his acquaintance’s birthday party and that it was going to be all basketball players there, a part of me thought that you’d be there. I mean, I didn’t go because I thought ‘Aomine Daiki’s going to be there!’ but it did occur to me that you might be. Then, when I actually saw you there and you were so...pfft!”

Kise spluttered with laughter, its melodious quality attracting the attention of a group of girls sitting nearby. Their eyes enlarged as it dawned on them who it was, and Aomine couldn’t help feeling like the mood had soured when he saw them all whispering excitedly. It didn’t escape Kise’s notice either, because he waved at them. The group of girls squealed, making others turn and stare at them. Embarrassed, the girls quickly fell silent, their loud squeals dropping into hasty whispers. They stopped looking over at Kise, only daring to glance when they thought he wasn’t looking. Aomine was shocked, and dare he say it, impressed.

“How did you...?”

“Tricks of the trade,” Kise winked at Aomine, “Big gaggle of girls either jump on you, or you get the shy ones who would love to say hi but don’t want to cause a scene so will just kinda stare from far away. It’s a bit hit and miss though, so I guess we’re lucky that those girls are the latter.”

“Psh, Mr Celebrity huh?” Aomine leaned back in his seat and tried his best to look indifferent even though he was anything but.

“I’m great, right?!” Kise said unabashedly, “So you must like me!”

Aomine couldn't keep his face straight and he laughed. “Where do you get all this self-confidence from?”

"Where do _you_ get all your self-confidence from?" Kise laughed back. "Midorimacchi also said that you're an _arrogant_ asshole. Just admit it! You _do_ like me!”

“So what if I do?”

“Then that’s great! I have class in the morning usually and then shoots from the evening, so I’m free most afternoons, surprisingly. I live with Reo-nee but he’s usually out until quite late so you could even come round some days and we could watch movies or chat or cuddle, or something, or then maybe we could—

“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” Aomine almost didn’t want to stop Kise. He looked so happy making all these plans, but it was all a little too much for him. “I don’t get it. You said you couldn’t date anyone, right?”

“Yeah...”

“Then what are you talking about? Even if I like you— _if_ —then we can’t be together anyway. I don’t understand what you want from me.”

Kise looked at Aomine as if his world had been blown apart and Aomine found himself inadvertently swallowing. He rubbed the back of his neck self-consciously and added, “I mean, we can hang out if that’s what you want but you’re being kinda pushy, y’know? We don’t even know each other very well...”

Kise grabbed Aomine’s hand and leaned so far forward Aomine could feel the heat from Kise's breath. Kise rambled, “You’re absolutely right. We don’t know each other very well. I’m sorry I’m pushy, I just. I get like this when I like someone and.” Kise sighed, then dropped Aomine's hand and sat back. He looked like a popped yellow balloon, and the sadness in his eyes was difficult to ignore. Aomine's chest constricted again. He was confused and incredibly uncertain, but somehow, he felt tied to Kise and unable - unwilling - to cut the thread that joined them.

“Let’s hang out. Just as friends. If that’s okay,” Kise said, biting his lip. “We’ll still have to avoid Reo-nee after what happened the other day, but otherwise. Let’s get to know each other. I'd like that.”

The smile that Kise gave him was shy, but warm and affectionate. Aomine was positive that no one had ever looked at him like that in his entire life. He wished he could take a picture of that smile and stick it on the inside of his locker, and it was then that he realized that maybe he did like Kise Ryouta...maybe just a little tiny bit. But not wanting to go back on his words and still somewhat uncomfortable with the situation, he remained silent and turned away, choosing instead to grab Kise’s hand and squeeze it. When he stole a glance at Kise and saw the unguarded look of joy on Kise’s face, Aomine had to cover his mouth with his hand to stop his smile from showing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm thinking of the walk from Kagurazaka to Waseda University combined with the walk from Hongo-sanchome to Tokyo Uni's Hongo campus as the general setting for the cafe.


	3. Pining for Kise Ryouta

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Aomine's acting like a teenage girl.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Short and fluffy update this week. It was going to be longer, but I decided to split the chapter up because it was a bit too long...buuut it just means I'll probably update extremely soon. 
> 
> Yep, this is definitely turning into some sort of slow British romcom fic (^^;) Thanks for sticking with it!

The first week after their meeting in the log cabin (“It wasn’t a friggin’ log cabin!” Aomine spluttered. “Yes it was!” Satsuki insisted), neither Aomine nor Kise tried to contact one other.

“Just call him already!” Kagami yelled from the kitchen one evening when Aomine was absentmindedly staring at his phone with the news on in the background, “Your sighing is really freaking me the hell out.”

Aomine snorted. “Shut up, Bakagami. I don’t _sigh_.”

“Like hell you don’t,” Kagami said, walking into the living-dining area and placing a bowl of peeled, chopped apples in front of Aomine, “Now eat your friggin’ apples you big baby.”

“Thanks _mom_ ,” Aomine rolled his eyes as he took a slice of apple from the bowl. He’d never admit it to anyone, but he’d probably die of malnutrition if Kagami didn’t feed him fruit like this. “How much does Satsuki pay you to do this?”

“Hah, she sits the dog for Kuroko when we go out,” Kagami replied, moving Aomine’s legs off the couch to make room for himself. He sat down and started flicking through the channels. “Your real mom does, however, pay me ten thousand yen a month for feeding you.”

“ _Ten thousand yen a month_?!” Aomine pulled a face. “What kind of man are you, taking money off a nice old lady like my mom?!”

“Hey! You don’t contribute anything to the bills or to the food expenses, and _do you know how much you eat_ _you asshole_? Get a job already! And don’t call your mom old!”

Aomine grunted and rolled further into the couch. With Kagami taking up half the space of their modestly sized sofa, he had no choice but to lay on his back in the fetal position, like a helpless turtle. A very troubled helpless turtle. Swallowing a sigh that had snuck up unsuspectingly into his chest, Aomine kicked Kagami to distract himself.  

“How’s it going with you and Tetsu by the way?” He asked, trying to sound casual. Kagami raised an eyebrow at him before looking back at the television.

“All right, yeah,” Kagami answered, appearing nonchalant.

“All right all right?”

“Yeah, it’s all right.”

Aomine watched Kagami from his turtle position on the couch. Ever so slowly, tinges of pink began to color Kagami’s otherwise neutral expression. Aomine grinned. Much to Satsuki’s dismay, Kuroko had moved after middle school to a different part of Tokyo, and had thus attended a different high school to them—one much closer to his house. Kagami and Kuroko had met there, and it was clear even to someone as oblivious as Aomine that there was something going on between them just by watching their gameplay on the court. They were so _in sync_ —it was part of the reason Aomine finally lost in the Interhigh Championship.

Kuroko and Kagami now attended the same university (“I will go wherever Kagami-kun goes,” Kuroko had said candidly, and Kagami had gone as red as his hair), Seirin, which was a short train ride away from Aomine and Kagami’s apartment but in the opposite direction to Touou. Kuroko lived at home with his parents, otherwise Aomine was sure Kagami and he would have moved in together. Although Aomine knew that beneath their insults and occasional violent spurs, he and Kagami were really good friends, he also knew that he was definitely not first choice of flatmate for his red-haired friend.

Seeing the frown on Kagami’s face as he tried to focus on the television screen, his cheeks growing progressively redder as Aomine stared, Aomine the Jerk decided to frustrate the situation further.

“So you know when you guys do it, how does it work?”

The rate at which Kagami was blushing increased rapidly. “W-What do you mean how does it work?!”

“Y’know, like, he’s half the size of you in both width and height, so what happens when you put it in? I mean, aren’t you ever scared you’re gonna rip him in half, or like, flatten him—

A string of curses flew out of Kagami’s mouth as he attempted to smother Aomine with a cushion. Aomine struggled under the cushion, half-laughing, half-suffocating until the variety show Kagami had been watching switched to commercials, and an all too familiar voice cried out.

_“Mizuki!”_

The blue-haired ace froze beneath his flatmate’s hold. Kagami, sensing that something wasn’t right, loosened his hold on him and let the cushion drop to the floor with a feeble ‘plop.’ Aomine sat up and faced the television with glassy eyes.

_A blond man reaches out and manages to catch the hand of a woman who’s trying to get away from him. They’re outside some run-down snack bar in a shady part of Tokyo. Passerbys stare but do not intervene._

“ _Let go of me, Kohei!_ ”

_The woman slaps the man, who staggers back, holding his cheek. The slap is so forceful his lip is bleeding. He looks indignant, but doesn’t try to give chase as he watches the woman run away. His blond hair is gelled back, not a hair out of place as he composes himself and turns slowly towards the entrance of the snack bar._

_In the entrance of the bar stands a skinny middle-aged woman dressed in a blue pinstripe shirt and dark navy suit trousers. Her hair is tied back in a messy ponytail and she looks like she’s had plenty to drink already. She looks extremely tired. Behind her sits a group of individual salarymen. Not one of them speaks to the other; they all stare at their drinks with sullen faces._

_The camera pans back to the woman, who falls against the doorframe, her shoulders slumped. There’s desire in her cloudy eyes as she stares at the man._

_The camera pans back to the man, whose expression is mesmerising. One cheek is darker than the other from where he’s been slapped. His eyes are sultry and dark as he stares just to the side of the camera—presumably at the woman. He licks the blood from his lips, leaving them swollen and moist._

_“Bad day.” He laughs like a scumbag. “Do you wanna have a drink with me?”_

_The right side of his face twitches, his lips hitching up just enough to form a grimace-like smirk that isn’t at all unattractive._

“Starting next week, Fridays at 9:00pm.”

Aomine groaned, picked the cushion from the floor and threw it onto his face as he fell back into the couch. “Turn that thing off, ugh. I feel sick. Bakagami, I’m sick.”

“Serves you right for teasing me earlier,” Kagami grumbled, though he sounded a little concerned, “Look, just ring him. Text. Email. LINE. Whatever you use. What’s up with you?”

“I said I’m fucking sick!” Aomine threw his phone somewhere in Kagami’s general direction, smothering himself with the cushion now. Kagami caught the phone with ease.

“Seriously?”

Aomine cried out from beneath the cushion. Kagami rolled his eyes.

“If you’re not gonna snap out of this, I’m going to have to ring Momoi. And Kuroko. And then you know what we’re gonna do? We’re going to be really, _really_ nice to you. Kuroko’s going to stuff you full of vanilla ice cream until you really are sick. Momoi’s going to bring all her pink shit—her fluffy duvets, her dressing gown, her bunny slippers—and make you wear them because that’s what makes her feel better when she’s sick. If you’re lucky she might pop by the convenience store and grab a few face packs. I’m going to make you that vegetable shake I make when you’re constipated—you know the one that’s basically a laxative—

“Okay, okay!” Aomine sat up and scowled. His friends had used this method of ‘being nice’ to him before to get him to do things. It had been one of the only ways to get him out of the house when he was going through his rough patch a few years ago, and he had to commend his friends for the amount of time and effort they put into him. It was admirable, and if Aomine was the type, he’d dare say he felt _loved_.

“Speak to me, Aho.”

“He said he really, _really_ likes me.”

“Yeah. You told me that a while ago. And?”

“So I can’t just call him or else he’s gonna get the wrong idea!”

“What wrong idea?”

“You know! That I like him or something.”

“But you do...?”

“Well that’s not the point!”

“You’ve lost me.”

“Whether I like him or not, we can’t be together.”

“So...why can’t you ring him then?”

“Because he’s going to think I like him!”

“But you can’t be together?”

“Yeah!”

“So...Wait, I’m confused. You can’t be together. End of story. So what does this have to do with whether he thinks you do or do not like him?” Kagami’s dense eyebrows furrowed deep into his brow as he stared at Aomine, perplexed. “Just message him, dickface. It’s not like you to think so much.”

Kagami tossed Aomine’s phone back at him and turned to the TV, still frowning. Aomine stared at the screen for a while, his mind blank, before he asked Kagami, “What do I say?”

“Just say hi, you idiot,” Kagami replied, punching Aomine in the arm.

-x-

At quarter to midnight that day, Aomine decided to LINE Kise.

Aomine: Hey

Kise: Hi (*^^*)

Aomine: How r u?

Kise: Good thanks ! ヾ(〃^∇^)ﾉ♪  
I’ve been really busy lately doing promo for my new drama! It’s out really soon so I have to plug it like crazy! Have you seen the ads??

Aomine: Yeah. You looked weird.

There was no reply. Aomine blinked as his phone screen dimmed, then turned off. He put down his phone, went to the bathroom, grabbed a bottle of Pocari Sweat from the refrigerator in the kitchen then sat back down on the couch. He picked up his phone. Still there was nothing. After about ten minutes of flicking through the TV channels on low volume, Aomine gave in.

Aomine: You didn’t look like you.

The bouncing ellipsis appeared immediately.

Kise: Ofc I didn’t! I was acting!ヾ(｡｀Д´｡)ﾉ  
Kise: But I guess this means my acting was good. Yaaaay!ヽ(∇⌒ヽ)(ﾉ⌒∇)ﾉ~~~♪♪

Aomine smiled to himself. _This guy_.

“Talk about doing a U-turn...” he mumbled, lying down on the couch and making himself comfortable as he watched the ellipsis dance on his screen.

Kise: How about you? How’s your week been?

Aomine: All right. Nothing to report.

Kise: Aw come on! You’re being modest. What happened?

Aomine: Am not. Nothing happened.  
Aomine: We’re not all famous celebrities like you.

Kise: ｖ(o￣∇￣o)Don’t be jealous now, hehehe.  
Kise: I’m serious tho. I’m sure you did something. You got up, got dressed and got out of the house right?

Aomine: Yeah.

Kise: So tell me about those things!

Aomine: That shit’s boring tho, wtf do you wanna hear about that for?

Kise: I want to hear about your life (o^-^o)  
Kise: Tell me about your day today.

Aomine paused and stared at his screen, frowning. This was what friends did right? Share pointless details about their day. Yeah. Friends. Good.

Aomine: I woke up. I got out of bed. My flatmate was a massive pain in the ass as usual. Then I went to class.

Kise: You have a flatmate?? What is he/she like??

Aomine: He’s okay. But he’s really loud in the mornings, always stomps around and shit, even when I’m trying to sleep.

Kise: Hahaha, are you sure he’s not doing it on purpose to wake you up?

Aomine had honestly never thought about it like that. Now that Kise had pointed it out, he was 99% sure Kagami did do it deliberately.

Kise: Anyway, tell me about the rest of your day! What class did you have?

The conversation continued with Aomine telling Kise about his physiology class. Aomine studied Sports Science. It sounded complicated, but in reality Aomine got a lot of credits from playing in games and just attending basketball practice (he still slept through the occasional practice but he knew that with a strict captain like Nijimura his leash was only so long). For the written exams, Satsuki, being the genius she was majoring in both Sports Science and Law, always studied with him and shared her notes to make sure he’d at least make the minimum grade.

Kise had asked Aomine about all the details of his university life during their conversation in the log cabin, going into detail about his schedule and study habits (or lack of them), which side of the campus most of his classes were and where he liked to nap. In return, Kise had also discussed the details of his life, revealing that he was a part-time student, studying aeronautics. Kise had explained that though his grades were usually appalling, by some stroke of a miracle he’d done just well enough to get into Kaijou, a university in Kanagawa, right by the ocean. Kaijou had just begun to offer an aeronautics course so their requirements were more lax than other universities, and on top of that their reputation for maritime sports, volleyball, soccer and basketball was very good.

“Aeronautics? Sounds a bit complicated for you,” Aomine had snorted.

“So mean!” The pout that adorned Kise’s lips had been worthy of his celebrity status. He had laughed it off shortly afterwards, however, saying, “But you’re totally right. It’s really complicated and I have to get a ton of tutoring, especially around exam time, and I barely pass every time, but it’s fun!”

During their three hours in the cabin, Aomine had discovered that Kise hadn’t always wanted to be a star. Ever since he was little, he’d actually wanted to be a pilot, so when the time had come for him to consider university he’d decided to go, even though his manager had argued against it.

“The thing is, if I study aeronautics, even though I won’t technically be a qualified pilot, I should be able to get a licence to fly pretty easily,” Kise had said, a small smile playing on his lips as he’d fiddled with the handle of his coffee cup, “I won’t be employed as a pilot or anything, but I always wanted to know how to fly. That way, when I have enough money I can fly my own private jet and go anywhere in the world!”

Aomine had seen the sparkle in Kise’s eyes as he spoke about his childhood dream. Yet as the excitement drained away, Aomine thought he’d heard a hint of disappointment when Kise had looked down into the brown pool of his cup and said, “I didn’t plan for things to be this way, but I don’t mind being famous. It gives me a lot of opportunities. It lets me earn enough to get one step closer to that private jet!”

Then Kise had laughed unconvincingly.

Kise: So what did you do after class then? Do you have a part-time job? Did you hang out with your friends?

Aomine: No. I didn’t have practice today so I just came home after class.

Kise: Hmmmmmmmmmmmmm  
Kise: Aominecchi, what do you do for fun?

Aomine: Play ball, duh

Kise: Then we should play sometime (^^)

Aomine’s thumb hovered above his phone screen. Of course he wanted to play against Kise. He loved basketball. He was curious about Kise’s abilities. But he still felt hesitant about agreeing to play against him. There was a knot in his chest that made him want to see Kise, but also want to avoid Kise, and he wasn’t sure which one Satsuki would recommend. After a minute or two, there was another message from Kise.

Kise: I understand if you don’t want to (⌒-⌒)

Aomine smiled sadly at his phone screen and sighed.

Aomine: Nah, I want to. When are you free?

Kise: YAY! How is tomorrow?? I’m near Touou around noon anyway so can see you then?

Aomine: Sure.

Kise: Yay!

Aomine smiled but didn’t know what else to say. He stared at his phone screen, wondering what people usually did in situations like these.

Kise: I should probably go to bed now, but thanks for messaging! Can’t wait for our game tomorrow, BRING IT ON (ﾍ｀∀´)/

Aomine chuckled lightly.

Aomine: Hah, get ready to lose, LOSER

Kise: I might surprise you you know!

Aomine: Fat chance. Touou tickets don’t sell at 3000 yen for nothing.

Kise: You can get them for 3000 yen??? Wth! I pay 5000 for mine!!

Aomine laughed out loud.

Aomine: You got duped.

Kise: KAZUNARICCHI!!!

Too preoccupied with laughing, Aomine failed to notice a sleepy Kagami poke his head out from his bedroom. Kagami, seeing nothing but his idiot flatmate, laughing to himself as he clutched his phone, cursed under his breath and shut the door with a bang.

Aomine: Ahahahaha, you have great friends.

Kise: ヾ(*｀Д´*)ﾉ" Homg, I’m so mad rn.  
Kise: ...But you’re right. I do (^^)

Another pause and then another quick message from Kise.

Kise: Goodnight Aominecchi.

Aomine: Gnight.

Aomine let his arm fall to the side, releasing the hold on his phone and letting it drop to the floor with an undramatic thud. He stared up at the white ceiling, not really caring what time it was but vaguely aware that it was quite late and he was not tired. At all. His heart was thumping madly in his chest and he hadn’t noticed until now. He had a stupid smile on his face—and he hadn’t noticed until now. Dropping the cushion on his face, Aomine wished time would pass quicker because he sure wasn’t going to be getting much sleep that night.


	4. Just Friends with Kise Ryouta

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Turns out Aomine and Kise are extremely bad at being Just Friends.  
> Maximum fluff, a splatter of smut, mild bickering and that Light Angst I snuck into the tags ahead.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks so much for the kind comments and kudos! I really enjoy writing this, and it makes me so happy to know there are people who enjoy reading it too. This chapter in particular was really fun to write (because I finally found a place for the Angst!), so I hope it can inspire the same feeling in you guys :)

A tall, dark, blue-haired man stood outside the main gates of Touou University, tapping his foot on the dirt ground and gritting his teeth. For many these were symptoms of frustration; for Aomine, they were symptoms of nervousness.

“You're taking your good shoes,” Kagami had noted when he’d left the house that morning, “Good to know you’re taking things seriously.”

Aomine had muttered a quick ‘shut up’ before slamming the door and practically running to the station. He'd had too much energy inside him for someone who’d only slept four hours. It had taken him forever to fall asleep in the first place, but then he’d woken up thinking about exactly the same thing as the night before—blond hair, amber eyes, and the sound of tinkling laughter—so he didn't feel rested at all. 

Feeling progressively more irritated, he stuffed his hands in his pockets, trying to spot a flicker of gold somewhere amongst the crowds of students leaving and entering the campus. Suddenly a pair of hands came up from behind him and covered his eyes.

“Guess wh—

Reflexively, Aomine turned to give the guy a black eye. But the man was quick and moved easily out of the way, laughing as he did so. Aomine wouldn’t mistake that light, melodic sound anywhere. As he narrowly stopped himself from aiming another punch, he felt the tips of his ears flush.

“Ah, sorry,” he mumbled, “You surprised me.”

Kise smiled self-consciously. “No, no, I should be the one apologizing.”

Kise was wearing the black beanie he’d worn to the log cabin, which he’d pulled right down to cover his gold hair completely. A grey raincoat with white stripes down the sleeves was zipped all the way up to his neck over black jeans and a small drawstring bag was strung over one of Kise's shoulders. In his hands Kise held a pair of blue Air Jordans. Aomine raised an eyebrow at the blue, and it was as though Kise read his mind because he blurted out, “Kaijou’s colors are blue. I swear I’m not a stalker.”

They made eye contact and after a moment’s pause Aomine snorted, dispelling any tension in the air between them.

“All right, let’s get on with this.”

With a cheerful Kise behind him, Aomine led the way towards Touou’s sports hall where the basketball team usually practiced. There was no lunchtime practice for any of the sports societies that day, so he knew it would be empty and free to use, at least for a few hours until most classes ended. Their footsteps echoed along the dark corridor, the silence stretching out between them. Part way, Kise began to hum a song from a recent commercial, and Aomine was both annoyed because he knew that song wouldn’t get out of his head for the rest of the day, but also surprised that Kise was so in tune.

When they reached the changing rooms, the silence engulfed them. It was awkward as Aomine gestured for Kise to get changed at one end of the room while he himself strode over to the other side where his locker was. They undressed without a word. Aomine focused on the contents of his locker, ensuring that he turned as little as possible to avoid seeing any parts of Kise he wasn’t quite ready to see (again) yet. Once dressed (Aomine changed excruciatingly slowly to make sure Kise was done before him), the two headed to the court to begin the game.

It was thrilling.

Kise was right: he did surprise Aomine. He managed to steal the ball from Aomine at the beginning of the game, getting the upper hand purely because Aomine had underestimated his dexterity and speed. Kise scored the first point as a result. Once Aomine had caught on though it wasn’t so easy, and Aomine easily took the next three baskets in quick succession with his trademark freestyle play and formless shot.

“Ah, I can’t believe I’m getting to see it this close,” Kise said quietly, as though speaking to himself. Aomine felt pride bubble up inside him and he grinned, getting further into the game.

When Kise next managed to get the ball, he caught Aomine off-guard again by scoring a three. A Midorima three.

“What the fuck?” Aomine said, blinking momentarily as he replayed the shoot in his head. “Did you just do what I think you did?”

“You betcha,” Kise winked. “I have Midorimacchi’s style down.”

Aomine laughed, shaking his head in disbelief. “What else you got, Copy Cat?”

Kise bounced the ball up and down, smirking seductively. “Why don’t you try me, Big Shot?”

The blond charged forward and Aomine guarded, knowing he could stop him. Except he couldn’t, because then Kise did something unbelievable. He did an Aomine.

“The fuck...?!”

With lightning speed and a flow of movement that Aomine recognized as his own signature style—the slight dip in his shoulders as he veered left, the almost gentle ferocity with which Kise dodged him—Kise scored the next basket, shooting from an impossible angle. An impossible angle that Aomine was sure only _he_ could shoot from.

Neither Aomine nor Kise moved to get the ball as it went through the hoop with a swish and bounced to a stop on the court. Aomine was in shock. Kise turned, the grin on his face so wide that you could no longer see his eyes, and said, “Do you like?”

 “I...”

‘ _I’m speechless,’_ Aomine thought, _‘I’m fucking speechless.’_

Seeing Aomine at a loss for words Kise laughed and dived for the ball. Aomine reacted instinctively and did the same, reaching the ball just before Kise and dribbling to the other end of the court. He scored, and then he scored again, not daring to pause now that he knew what Kise was capable of. When he scored his tenth consecutive basket, Kise called for a time out and collapsed on the floor where he was.

“Oi,” Aomine stood over him and nudged him with his foot, “Don’t tell me that’s all you got?”

Kise, breathless and red in the face, shook his head. “No. I can carry on going. I just need to...”

He held out his hand, then laughed. “Ah shit, I’m shaking like a leaf. Do you have a drink I could have or something?”

Aomine walked over to where he’d left his gym bag and tossed Kise a bottle. Kise barely caught it. 

“I’m sorry Aominecchi. I'm technically on the Kaijou team but I'm not available enough for practice so coach refuses to let me be a first-stringer. At the same time I'm not on the second string either. I'm sort of their emergency player, so I don’t usually play for this long. I guess I need to work on my stamina. ”

Aomine watched from afar as Kise drank half of his Pocari Sweat in one go. His usually perfect hair was soaked in sweat and sticking in patches to his head. Beads of sweat were rolling down his neck, leaving a trail of moisture that crept under his Kaijou basketball shirt. The contrast between his pale limbs and his tomato-red face was striking, and Aomine knew he was staring but found that he didn’t care. He wanted to keep looking at the man.

Kise returned Aomine’s gaze with a small smile from his sitting position on the ground.

“Aominecchi. Do you wanna come sit with me?”

Aomine wanted to say no. No, he didn’t want to get any closer to this beautiful sweaty man who he wanted to keep staring at. No, he was fine where he was, far, far away from said beautiful man. But his body moved of its own accord and before he knew it, he was sat a mere few centimeters away from Kise.

“Aw man, that was so awesome!” Kise declared, stretching his arms in the air. “Every shot you made was so cool! I mean, I’m used to watching you make those shots from up there with everyone else, but ah! It was even cooler up close! Like ten million times cooler!”

Aomine knew he was smiling but said nothing. Kise’s smile was too big, and he was unable to speak in the smile’s presence.

“This was so much better than when I played you in middle school! Back then I was nowhere near the level I’m at now...No wonder you don’t remember the game.”

There was a hint of sadness in Kise’s voice which made Aomine’s smile falter a little. Maybe Kise noticed, because he stopped and moved a little closer to Aomine. Aomine could see the faint pink of Kise’s cheeks and noted how the pink brought out the gold in his eyes.

“Did you like my formless shot? I’ve been working really hard on imitating it and I think it’s almost there, don’t you?”

Aomine was aware that he wasn’t responding, but he couldn’t bring himself to. He was on Touou’s basketball court—home, as far as he was concerned—and Kise’s voice was soft and comforting. The adrenaline from playing was slowly easing up, replaced by a sort of post-exercise euphoria. His muscles were relaxing as his breathing grew slower and more even. 

“You know...” Kise began, not meeting the taller man's gaze, “My Captain hasn’t even seen that move yet. My imitation of your formless shot. It sounds stupid but...I’m really happy I got to show it to you first.”

A shy smile graced Kise’s lips and looking at it made Aomine feel physical pain in his chest. His expression must have reflected that pain because Kise suddenly looked worried. He placed a steady hand on Aomine’s shoulder, which only made the pain worse.

“Aominecchi. Are you okay?”

Aomine wasn’t sure he was okay. He was pretty sure, actually, that he was very sick. Sicker than he had been yesterday evening, and getting sicker the more he watched Kise Ryouta and the way his eyes grew doe-like and innocent when he was worried; the way they withdrew and crinkled when he was happy; the way they shone fiercely when he was determined and—

“Aominecchi.”

Kise’s hand was cradling his jaw and he was so close the tips of their noses were a hair’s width apart. “You’re staring at me.”

Aomine closed the gap between them. It was a long kiss, less messy than the kisses they had shared the previous week. It was slow—leisurely—sprinkled with soft grunts and quiet, content hums.

It was easy to lose track of how long they had been kissing. Neither of them broke the kiss; not exactly. They would occasionally pull away and steal a look at one another, but each time they would close their eyes again then continue where they left off. Aomine could taste the sweet sport's drink from his bottle on Kise’s tongue, delicious and oddly hydrating, as they meshed their mouths together slowly, enjoying the soft pressure of their lips on each other.

Eventually, however, Kise laid a hand on Aomine’s chest and stopped the successive kisses.

“Aominecchi,” He mumbled, slightly out of breath. His lips rested precociously over Aomine’s, as though ready to resume their activities at any given moment, “Friends...don’t kiss like this, do they?”

“No,” Aomine replied, tilting his head slightly forward so he could catch Kise’s lips. “I don’t think so.”

“Then...” Kise reciprocated by giving Aomine a peck on the lips. “Is this okay?”

“Well,” Aomine leaned forward for yet another kiss. “Do you like this?”

“I,” Kise began before Aomine interrupted him with another, more forceful, kiss. “I think I do.”

“Do you wanna carry on doing this?” Aomine asked, one hand softly brushing against Kise's knuckles as the other moved to press gently against Kise’s back, making the blond lean instinctively forward towards the darker man.  

“I’d...I’d really like that, yeah,” Kise answered, not bothering to smile and planting his lips on Aomine’s instead—this time with more fervor and zeal than before. They continued tasting one another with Aomine’s calloused fingers absentmindedly rubbing the back of Kise’s hand as Kise leaned further and further into him until they were both horizontal on Touou gym’s floor. Their fingers tangled themselves together as Kise pressed his lips and then his entire body into Aomine, making him moan in pleasure.

“Shit,” Aomine mumbled, swallowing and trying to catch his breath at the same time as Kise pulled away momentarily. Blond locks hung downwards, framing Kise’s face as he smiled down at him like an angel, though Aomine was certain the blond's thought were far from angelic.

“Sorry, I think I’m getting a bit carried away,” Kise said, sounding completely unapologetic as he dived back into kissing the Touou ace.

There were no thoughts going through Aomine’s mind. Kise’s tongue was moist and warm as it entered Aomine’s mouth, gently at first, and then growing more passionate as Kise grunted against him. Almost of its own accord, Aomine found his free hand slipping under Kise’s basketball shirt, rubbing the small of his back before moving down towards the waistband of his basketball shorts. He thrust his pelvis up against Kise and they groaned simultaneously as their erections collided.

“Do you have condoms?” Kise asked, licking and sucking just below Aomine’s jaw.

“No,” Aomine grunted in reply. “Why the...why the fuck would I...”

There was a soft, sweet pain where Kise was sucking his neck. It was making Aomine make noises he was desperately trying to suppress, and his increasingly _fragile_ erection was not making anything easier. 

“Kise...”

“I can suck you off if that’s better?” Kise mumbled, as Aomine wondered how he could be speaking _and_ doing whatever magic that was on his neck that was making him press his fingers into Kise and knead his skin like play-dough. He slid his hand fully under the waistband of Kise's shorts, appreciating the firm smoothness of the blond's butt cheek before squeezing it hard. Kise made a sound that was half giggle, half moan.

Aomine’s imagination got the better of him. He started picturing the blond sucking his way down to his painfully hard cock, his nimble fingers easily sliding the loose jersey over his broad shoulders as he undressed him. Kise would throw the jersey aside so that the proud words ‘Touou 5’ would lie crumpled on the floor as his lips kissed a line down Aomine’s torso towards the mound of blue hair barely covering his genitals. Of course, he’d pay homage to a nipple on the way down (perhaps it was because Aomine was an admirer of breasts, but he really liked nipple play), but then, when he arrived at the erect member, he’d lick the slit before gently working his lips around it, using his hands to pump the base, up and down and up and down and—

Aomine was leaking pre-cum at the thought, and he wasn’t sure he was going to make it.

“Kise...I don’t...I’m not ready...”

Kise pulled away just as the clock tower in Touou’s courtyard struck two o’clock. The blond gave Aomine one last peck on the lips before he rolled off him, lying flat on his stomach on the ground.

The two men didn’t speak as they tried to calm themselves down. After a few minutes, when Aomine finally felt like he had control of himself again, he glanced over at Kise to see the blond facing away from him.

“Oi, Kise.”

There was no reply. Aomine wondered if he had might have fallen asleep and tried to roll Kise over onto his back. When he was met with resistance but no other response, Aomine reached under Kise’s arms and started tickling him.

“S-Stop that!!” Kise cried, spluttering with laughter and conceding to Aomine’s whims. His face was flushed and his lips swollen.

“Don’t ignore me then, you ass,” Aomine growled, smiling in spite of himself.

They stayed on the ground, facing one another. Kise’s skin was smooth and unblemished. His eyelashes were long and dark, emphasizing the vibrant color of his eyes.

‘ _This guy is too pretty to be real,_ ’ Aomine thought idly to himself. ‘ _What would he look like with a beard?’_

As Aomine’s sullen expression darkened even further, Kise groaned and turned away from him again.

“Stop looking at me like that.”

“Huh? Stop looking at you like what?”

“Like the way you look at me, God.” Kise sounded frustrated. “I can’t be friends with you when you look at me like that.”

“I don’t understand. How do I look at you?” Aomine asked, genuinely confused.

Kise mumbled something incoherent. Aomine had no patience for incoherence, and without thinking, climbed on top of Kise and dropped the weight of his whole body on the smaller man in a manner that was entirely unsexy and also entirely aggravating. Kise squealed and tried to struggle, but Aomine was all muscle and surprisingly able to balance his whole body on another man without rolling off him. When eventually Kise decided to accept his fate—that yes, this over 6-foot tall basketball player was _planking_ on him—he turned his head to the side and refused to look at the ace.

Silently noting that Kise’s profile was very handsome, Aomine pulled the blond’s chin harshly to make him look at him.

“How do I look at you?” Aomine repeated, glowering.

“Okay, well you’re not looking at me like that now so...” Kise said as if to change the subject. Aomine grabbed Kise’s lips then _squeezed_ , eliciting another squeal from the blond.

“Stop being so annoying!”

“All right, all right! Oh my god,” Kise cried through his duck lips as Aomine released him. “Geez, I make a living off this face so could you be more careful?!” He prodded and rubbed his lips, trying to assess the damage. “Now what was the question again?”

Aomine really wanted to punch him. Really, really hard. But he managed to settle for flicking him lightly between the brows instead, much to Kise’s frustration as he gave another yelp.

“I asked, how do I look at you?”

Kise was the picture of a sulking child when he mumbled, “You look at me like you’re in love with me.”

“I—

Something caught in Aomine’s throat but he forced it down.

—do not!”

“Y-Yes you do!”

“Prove it!”

“How am I meant to prove it?! Should I install a mirror in my face?!”

“Well then you’re lying!”

“I am not!” Kise’s eyes narrowed as he scowled. “Ever since I met you when you were drunk off your face you’ve looked at me like that. And it’s really hard to resist you when I, also, am sort of in love with you.”

“W-What are you talking about?!” Aomine’s voice was many octaves too high. “W-When did this become a conversation about being in love with you? What do you mean you’re in love with me?!”

“I already told you last time! Why are you so surprised?!”

“You said you ‘really, really like me’ last time!” Aomine said, imitating Kise’s voice and earning an indignant, “I don’t sound like that!”

“It’s the same thing!” Kise argued.

“It’s _totally different,_ ” Aomine retorted.

“Well, fine then! I retract what I said last time and replace it with a ‘I’m sort of in love with you’! Are you happy now?!”

The two glared at one another, their faces barely a centimeter apart. Aomine was aware that in the movies, this was the moment they’d bash their faces together and resume making out, eventually having amazing, angry sex. But Aomine was in no mood for make-up sex (and more importantly he had no condoms or lube), so he reacted instinctively and headbutted Kise instead.

“The fuck!” Kise yelled after their foreheads collided with unexpected force. Taking advantage of how the bluenette was in equal amounts of pain, Kise finally shoved Aomine off him.

“Midorimacchi was right, you’re such a jerk!” He shouted, pressing his hands to his forehead.

“Shut up,” Aomine growled. He rubbed his own forehead and tried to focus on the situation. Instead, he was completely distracted by the tears falling down Kise’s cheeks.

“Oi, are you okay?”

“No I’m not fucking okay!” Kise spat at him, openly crying. “Who the fuck headbutts people after they’re confessed to?! If you don’t like me you don’t have to hurt me! What if it bruises?! How am I meant to promote a drama with a big fat bruise on my face?!”

Admittedly, Aomine felt a little bad. He reached over to Kise, who swatted his hand away, but Aomine persisted until he’d managed to capture Kise’s arms and get a good look at his head.

“It looks fine. I don’t think you’re gonna bruise,” Aomine muttered, eyes scanning the red mark on Kise’s head intensely. Kise looked suspicious of him but didn’t try to pull away. They sat in silence for a while with Kise looking gloomily to the side of the gym as Aomine gripped his wrists and tried to think of something to say.

“Look,” he started, trying to imagine what Satsuki would do in a situation like this, before realizing that of course, Satsuki would never almost have sex with a model in the middle of their university basketball court, or respond to a confession by headbutting the confessor, “I, er, just...don’t take this the wrong way but you’re not helping yourself.”

“ _I’m_ not helping _myself_?!”

Kise looked like he was going to kill him. Aomine quickly added, “Look all I’m saying is that when you keep saying shit like ‘I’m in lo...really really like you’, thing, er, it doesn’t really help things, does it?”

Kise blinked at the tanned man. Eventually, he nodded. “Go on.”

“So, er.” Aomine hadn’t thought any further than that. He let his words hang in the air as Kise seemed to contemplate something, his eyes running over the ceiling of the gym. When his amber orbs eventually came down to rest on Aomine’s ocean blue eyes, Kise asked bluntly, “Do you want to date me?”

“What the-What?!”

“I said, do you want to date me?”

“For fuck’s sake, we’ve been through this! You’re not allowed to date anyone!”

“I know, but I don’t care anymore,” Kise’s expression was stony. The tears that had been falling from his eyes just moments ago clung prettily to his dark lashes—but the man certainly wasn’t crying anymore. His eyes were filled with resolve. “Aominecchi, will you go out with me?”

Aomine felt his confusion rise to another level. “Are you hearing yourself? You. Can’t. Date. It’s in your fucking contract. You’re an idol. You, are _Kise Ryouta_. Are you aware of that?!”

“Yes,” Kise replied. His tone was immovable. He kissed Aomine on the cheek then said, “Aominecchi, I can’t be friends with you. I am never going to want to be just friends with you. I think you’re amazing and gorgeous, and I want you to be mine, and I want to be yours. So please go out with me.”

Though his ego was glowing with pride, confusion continued to press against Aomine’s mind.

“Kise. You’re a _new_ idol. Are you trying to screw up your career before it’s even started? Have you even thought about what’s going to happen if people find out you have a _boyfriend_?”

Kise looked thoughtful as Aomine tried to recover from the shock of sounding exactly like Satsuki.

“Well...maybe we can tone it down in front of other people,” Kise said at last, “Maybe we can be subtle about it. The press are pretty dumb sometimes. If we just hang out and stuff and not do, well, _this_ , then they’ll say we’re friends cus we’re both guys. I don’t want to keep you a secret, but it could work!”

Something akin to panic took hold of Aomine. Him, the secret boyfriend of Kise Ryouta, Next Big Thing? Him, the basketball junkie who liked to go fishing for crayfish in his spare time, dating the dream man of thousands of teenage girls and housewives? The world had gone mad. Someone was pulling his leg.

“Please, I know this is selfish of me to ask, but will you be with me? I want to—and I know I can—make you happy, if you give me a chance.”

Kise smiled meekly. Aomine didn’t know what to say. He conjured up the image of Satsuki, with her endless wisdom and skills of perception, but only saw her looking silently back at him, concerned. He imagined Kagami, and how he’d furrow his brows and struggle to come up with good advice. He imagined Tetsu, who’d chew the straw to his vanilla shake and say something like, “Aomine-kun. At the end of the day, it’s up to you.”

Kise searched Aomine’s eyes for some sort of answer. He loved the way those dark blue eyes shone different hues of navy; the way they told what the man behind those eyes was really thinking, even when the man himself was stuck for words. He remembered when he’d first gazed into those eyes on the basketball court back in middle school, and how lifeless they had been then, how bored. Even though they didn’t know each other then, Kise had known that beneath that layer of boredom, there was more—more beauty, more passion, more _glee_ —and even back then, something in him had wanted to be the one to break through the boredom: to light the fire inside Aomine and watch his blue eyes _burn_.

The blond had been there, in the audience, when Aomine lost to Kagami and Kuroko’s team in high school. Even in high school he had been too busy with modelling to play officially, but he had still made time to watch his favorite player’s matches. He’d never expected Aominecchi (as he liked to call him even then) to lose in the quarter-finals; had had so much confidence in the blue-haired man’s abilities that he’d already cleared out his schedule well in advance to make sure he could make the Interhigh finals.

At the end of the game, when Kagami went to shake hands with Aomine, Kise had seen it. He’d seen how Aomine’s handsome features had been caught in a mix of relief and anguish; had seen how life began pulsing back into him as he squeezed the hand of the smaller basketball player with light blue hair.

Of course, Kise had been jealous. But then again, _he doesn’t even know who you are_ , Kise had rationalized, and he’d managed to laugh at himself for being so star-struck and crushing on this man who was clearly unaffected by his existence.

 _Maybe one day he’ll know who I am, when I become famous and my face is all over the place,_ 17-year-old Kise had thought, spinning a basketball on his finger as he laid on his bed. For a few months afterwards, Kise had taken on more jobs than he should have considering his floundering grades, never directly but always subconsciously thinking, ‘ _Maybe one day even Aominecchi will notice me_.’

It was ironic really: now that his fame was rising, and Aomine certainly knew who he was, they couldn’t be together. It was so ironic.

Kise saw the swamp of confusion, the lilt of panic, in Aomine’s eyes and made himself grin. He made himself hold back his tears because Aomine was right—it didn’t help when he said things like _I’m in love with you_ so it probably wouldn’t help if he just burst into tears because he knew what Aomine would say, even if he couldn’t find the words to express himself.

So he made himself smile, made himself exert the energy he usually put into acting into facing rejection, and eventually, Kise managed to say, “I understand.”

Aomine’s grip on his wrists was loose. Kise pulled away from him and got to his feet, making sure he left the gym at as regular a speed as possible to avoid an overly dramatic exit. He didn’t bother to get changed as he gathered his things from the changing room, but did manage to pop his jacket on so as to hide his eye-catching Kaijou basketball jersey and to put his hat back on so as to hide his trademark gold locks. It was only when he exited Touou’s campus through the gate he had entered from that his walking sped up, until he was practically running in the direction of Shuutoku.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's my second time mentioning singing songs from commercials. If you're wondering what I had in mind, check out this [bread commercial](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3jkmBwpGcW8) on youtube.


	5. Without Kise Ryouta

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Momoi, Kagami and Kuroko (and Sakurai) are the best friends a man could ever ask for.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We're gearing up for the end... Thanks for reading, and hope you like the chapter :)

It was officially one of the worst days of Aomine’s life. When he’d eventually trudged to class extremely late after getting out of his basketball clothes at the pace of a snail, his professor had sent him back out immediately for being ‘disrespectfully late with a hickey on his neck’—a hickey that he didn’t even know he had until she’d pointed it out to him. The canteen was already closed, he’d have nothing to do if he went to the library because he certainly wasn’t in the mood to nap, like hell he’d go back to the gym after what happened at lunchtime, and just as he was about to settle for playing some ball at the park near Touou, the sky decided to open its gaping grey clouds and shit on his parade.

Aomine ran to the Maji Burger nearby, hoping to seek shelter, but unfortunately for him he ran straight into ‘Kazunaricchi’ and Midorima. ‘Kazunaricchi’ ( _what on earth was his name?!_ Aomine couldn’t recall for the life of him) almost attacked him on sight and probably would have at least left a scratch had it not been for Midorima, who held the smaller man back and told Aomine to "run, or I'll release him."

“Don’t you fucking go near him you asshole!” The raven-haired boy shouted after Aomine as he jogged back out into the rain in search of someplace where his eyes weren't in danger of being gouged out of their sockets.

Eventually Aomine came across a convenience store. As he jogged inside and grabbed a 500 yen umbrella by the door, he scanned the magazine stand by the counter and _low and behold_ there were three magazines with Kise’s face on—two promoting his new drama next week and one for men’s fashion with Kise in a three piece adjusting his tie.

Aomine marched up to the magazine stand, scowled at the magazines featuring the blond and grabbed Mai-chan’s newest release because oh my God, how had he forgotten that Mai-chan’s limited edition ‘autumn colors’ bikini special was released today?! Though he rarely enjoyed eating sweet things, the ace also grabbed two pots of tiramisu and slammed them down with his magazine and umbrella onto the register counter.

“Th-That’ll be 2500 yen p-please,” the store clerk stammered, evidently frightened. Aomine’s eyes were burning with frustration, and he wasn’t even sure why he was so annoyed.

After throwing his money at the store clerk, Aomine charged out into the rain with his flimsy vinyl see-through umbrella, and of course it broke ten minutes from his apartment so he had to run the rest of the way soaking wet anyway.

As he slammed the door behind him, breathless from the run and from his rage, Kagami popped his head round the door from the kitchen and said, “Whoa, you look like shit.”

“Great,” growled Aomine, “Just fucking great.”

“Get dry Aho. You’re gonna catch a cold, and you and I both know it’s gonna be me who has to look after you if you get man flu.”

Aomine fumbled to get his sneakers off then stomped into his room, leaving a trail of rain behind him. He plopped his shopping down with the rest of the junk in his room then quickly stripped and changed into some ambiguously clean clothes lying on his bedroom floor. Grabbing a towel that was flung over the desk chair he never sat in, he ruffled his hair dry then flopped down onto his bed, covering his eyes with his arm and groaning as he replayed what happened at lunchtime in his head.

Date me, Kise had said.

What the fuck, Aomine had said.

And then...Kise had said, date me, again. And then he had...not said anything. And then Kise had said “I understand.” Then he had left.

Aomine didn’t understand. He hadn’t understood much since meeting Kise, but now, he didn’t understand what Kise apparently _did_ understand.

“Should I...message...him?” Aomine scrolled through the messages they’d exchanged just the night before. Kise was so light and so cheerful; so full of energy. Aomine didn’t understand what Kise could possibly see in him to risk his budding career. Sure, he was great in many ways—handsome, athletic, won at life and basically everything—but he knew his faults. He knew that he was rude and thoughtless, often inconsiderate, and easily rubbed people up the wrong way. He was awful with names and didn’t like remembering important dates, which, as Satsuki often reminded him, would get him in trouble with his girlfriend one day.

Then again, if they dated Kise wouldn’t technically be his _girlfriend_.

Aomine rolled over onto his stomach and pressed his face into his pillow, breathing in the scent of himself. His thoughts were a jumble. As he waded through his own mind things only got darker and murkier.

“Why can’t it be like basketball?” He muttered, thinking about how easy it was to navigate his way to the door that let him enter the zone. Why couldn’t affairs of the heart be the same?

The rain pelted down, beating against the window beside his bed so hard that he almost mistook Kagami’s knock on his bedroom door as an extension of the downpour. Aomine didn't bother to get up, but turned his head to watch as the red-haired man stepped into his room, balancing two trays topped with bowls of rice, pickled side dishes, miso soup and some grilled salmon over a bed of seaweed. Kagami settled the trays in the middle of the room after clearing some space with his foot.

“What are you doing?”

“Feeding your sorry ass,” Kagami replied. He whipped the pillow out from under Aomine’s head then promptly sat on it, picking up his chopsticks and muttering a quick “Itadakimasu” before digging in. Aomine watched from his position on the bed.

“Do you wanna talk about that hickey on your neck?” Kagami asked, casually sipping at his soup, “Or are you just gonna lay there and sulk while your dinner gets cold.”

Aomine’s features scrunched into a scowl as he slid off the bed. He sat himself down on the floor, mumbled an “Itadaki” then he tucked into his dinner.

“Sakurai texted me,” Kagami said, swallowing a mouthful of rice, “After apologizing for the first few lines he told me he overheard some people from your two pm lecture giggling over how you got sent out for having a hickey and being late. That true?”

“Yeah.”

“So what happened? Far as I know you're always late but you've never had a hickey before.”

“Yeah.” Aomine took a long drink from his soup bowl. “I played basketball with Kise today.”

“Oh yeah? How’d that go?”

“He was...surprisingly good. He can do this thing where he copies people’s moves, so he caught me off-guard when he shot a Midorima. And then he copied me and that was kind of a mind fuck, but after that, of course I pulled it back and won.”

“Well that’s great and all, but it doesn’t explain why you got that big black bruise on your neck.”

“Oh.”

There was a quiet clink as Kagami finished off the last of his miso soup and placed the bowl back on the plastic tray. The flame-haired basketball player silently stood up, went back into the kitchen and re-entered the room with a new bowl of rice—one for himself and another for Aomine, who was sat with his chopsticks in mid-air, pulling a face like he was trying to get something out of his teeth. Kagami sat down, put the rice bowls down, then popped a pickled radish in his mouth and sighed.

“So you made out. Then what happened?”

“We had this really weird conversation.”

“How’d it go?”

“Oh, well before that I headbutted him.”

“You did _what?_ ”

“I headbutted him. I mean, obviously I panicked, but what did he expect? He just went out there and said ‘ _I’m in love with you’_ like it’s no big deal so—

_“Oh my God, he told you he’s in love with you?!”_

Aomine frowned. The voice that had just spoke definitely did not belong to Kagami. Laughing and obviously embarrassed, Kagami reached into his trouser pocket and fished out his phone.

“What kind of joke are you trying to pull, Bakagami?!” Aomine cried incredulously as he saw the name ‘Momoi’ displayed on Kagami’s phone screen.

“Don’t blame Kagamin, Dai-chan! I put him up to this,” came Satsuki’s voice through the phone.

“Yes, Aomine-kun, please refrain from hurting Kagami-kun.”

“The hell, Tetsu?!” Hairs standing on end, Aomine looked around him, expecting to find the phantom somewhere amongst the mess in his room. When Kagami pointed to his phone, he breathed a sigh of relief.

“I’m having dinner with Tetsu-kun at the moment, but we wanted to call to see if you were okay,” Satsuki explained.

Aomine scratched his head and said in an irritated voice, “Why wouldn’t I be okay?”

“Sakurai messaged me,” Satsuki said, “Carry on with what you were saying! Kise-kun told you he’s in love with you, and then, like the idiot you are, you headbutted him, and then what happened?”

“We, er, I said something like he shouldn’t say that sorta thing, and then he...asked me out.”

“And then what did you say?!”

Satsuki’s voice was so high Aomine winced. Kagami’s expression was intense and one of obvious apprehension. Feeling self-conscious under his flatmate’s gaze and in the silence that followed, Aomine eventually said, “I, er, didn’t say anything. And then he left.”

“The fuck...” Kagami’s voice was extremely quiet, his frown only deepening.

“Oh, wait, he said ‘I understand’ and then he left,” Aomine shrugged, “No, I don’t know what he was talking about either.”

Expecting his friends to be sympathetic and agree that Kise was being needlessly mysterious, instead, Aomine’s ears were greeted with three simultaneous cries of exasperation (although Kuroko’s was perhaps more a sigh of disappointment).

“Dai-chan!! I can’t believe you just—

“Wait a go, Aho—

“Aomine-kun, I don’t think you—

“—let him walk out like that, oh my God, the man—

“—the love of your life just goes and makes it easy but—

“—understand the implications of what Kise-kun was trying to—

“—just laid his heart out bare for you and then you just—

“—nooo, you just have to make life hard for yourself—

“—say, because when you don’t say anything after a confession—

“—trod on it like he was nothing, and for God’s sake Dai-chan why can’t you—

“—and be the idiot that you are even when—

“—he’s going to think that you meant to refuse him when—

“—just accept that you are obviously—

“—it’s pretty clear that you are also—

“—I think what you were meant to say was I’m—

“—madly in love with him.”

“...you.” Kuroko finished.

Aomine felt like he’d been buffeted with blast after blast of gale force wind. He blinked a little, then said a bleary, “Whaa?”

“Dai-chan!” Satsuki’s voice was loud and clear, almost military. “You rejected Kise Ryouta.”

“N-No, I didn’t,” Aomine said, blinking in disbelief as he took in Satsuki’s accusation.

“Aomine-kun,” Kuroko said gently, “I’m afraid, whether you meant to or not, that is probably what you did.”

“B-But, I didn’t say anything? I mean, I was just thinking about it, so...”

“Well I’m pretty sure that’s not how he took it...” Kagami muttered.

“But—then—I.” Aomine had no idea what people did in situations like these. “What should I do? Should I message? Say ‘look, I wasn’t rejecting you’?”

“Don’t phrase it like that! Say ‘hey we should date’ or something!”

As though sensing Aomine’s hesitation, Satsuki added tentatively, “Dai-chan. Is it because you’re unsure of your feelings for Kise-kun? Is that why you couldn’t reply to him?”

In truth, Aomine wasn’t that unsure about his feelings for the blond. Kise made his heart do flips; reduced his brain to a puddle so that he was tongue-tied and struggled to string simple sentences together. He prevented him from getting a good night’s sleep, made him draw the outlines of his face and shade in his hair gold instead of succumbing to any sort of fatigue. And when he thought about the way Kise moaned beneath him that time, how carnal pleasure had coursed up his spine, driving his senses wild as he buried himself into the blond, he couldn't wait to hold him again and smell the mix of sweat, sex and some girly perfume, lingering on the back of Kise's neck. Aomine knew that he liked Kise. And when he thought further, about how he wanted to know what the blond was up to, wanted to listen to him chatter about his life over dinner as Aomine stole food off his plate and stared at him from across a table that might even have a candle on it, as someone who was naturally inclined to not give a crap about other people’s lives, Aomine knew that these were signs that he _really_ liked him.

So Aomine’s hesitation definitely did not come from doubt over his feelings. It came from a sense of...something Aomine was entirely not used to. Something that Aomine never ever thought he’d experience. Something commonly known as insecurity.

“I just, I don’t know what he sees in me,” Aomine muttered. Kagami’s face went pale. There was silence over the phone. “I mean, the shit storm that’d happen if people found out he was seeing someone. And on top of that, that he’s gay. He’s just starting out and people love him and, I mean, why would you risk that for some dumbass basketball nerd like me?”

Kagami slapped him. He didn’t punch him in the arm like he usually did when he wanted Aomine to shut up; he didn’t kick him in the side either, which was usually his other preferred method. He straight out palms-flat slapped Aomine around the face.

“Never fucking say that again,” Kagami said through gritted teeth. Murmurs of agreement came from over the phone. “If Kise says that he’s in love with you, then _he is in love with you_ , Aomine. It means he doesn’t care what a dumbass you are; it means he accepts your faults, and that’s if he even sees your faults as faults. Don’t pick _now_ as the time you choose to have a lapse in self-confidence, Aho.”

“Taiga’s right, Aomine-kun,” Kuroko said, forgetting that he usually reserved Kagami’s first name for more intimate moments, “And if Kise-kun says that he wants to be with you then I’m sure he’s aware of the implications.”

Aomine snorted. “I don’t know, I mean, the guy’s pretty reckless actually.”

“Do you trust him, Dai-chan?”

“I...I don’t have any reason not to,” Aomine mused. Since their meeting, Kise had been nothing but honest with him. Despite being an actor, he had used none of those techniques with Aomine and had embraced him with an open and naked heart. But there was still another nagging feeling Aomine couldn’t quite rid himself of.

“But...look, I just don’t want to ruin his life. You know how much I’d regret that? What if this whole thing blows up and then he loses everything, gets mocked on the streets and flamed online? I don’t want to be the cause of his unhappiness.”

“Oh Dai-chan,” Satsuki’s voice broke. She sounded like she was crying. “I’m so proud of you.”

“Huh?”

“I think, Aomine-kun, Momoi-chan means that by being able to think about someone else’s happiness over your own, you’ve finally grown up.”

“I also think," Kagami began, smiling softly as he punched Aomine lightly on the arm, "it means you’re pretty in love with him, Aho.”

Aomine, blushing and a little startled, stayed silent as his childhood friend pressed on. 

“The way I see it, Dai-chan, his work is important to him, and I’m sure he’d be sad to lose what he’s worked so hard for, but he’s not going to find another You anytime soon, if ever,” Satsuki said, definitely crying by now if she hadn’t been already, “And when are you going to find another Kise-kun? Is it really all right for you to just let him go like that? Besides, you say if he loses ‘everything’ but if you’re there then he won’t have, will he? He’ll have you, and I’m sure then he’ll feel like it was worth it. Besides, you don’t follow his fanblogs or anything, but do you know what his motto in life is? It’s ‘Be honest with yourself.’ And I really think that if you weren’t honest with yourself right now then you’d regret it just as much, Dai-chan.”

Satsuki’s sniffles were loud and shameless. There were sounds of Kuroko consoling her as the fog in Aomine’s mind cleared. Firmly, he pushed aside the creeping anxiety that lay like cobwebs over the surface of his thoughts and resolved in his mind to do it. Still blushing and still a little startled, he announced:

“I'll go. I'll go get him.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Then Kagami power-hugged Aomine, and the tiramisu never did get eaten.
> 
> Hope it wasn't too confusing in the middle with the overlapping voices. Next chapter features Kise's best friends, which means the return of some mild MidoTaka :)


	6. Kise Ryouta & Co.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Aomine's not great with confessions or almost-relationships, and Takao and Momoi mean business when it comes to the welfare of their friends.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this update is so late! I meant to post this way earlier (especially because it's more a pre-finale kind of chapter...) but I've had a tight deadline this week (TT)
> 
> I think that Momoi and Takao would make fantastic CEOs. I definitely think Midorima would be the secretary.
> 
> 11/11/2015: Very, very minor edits! Spot them if you can, lol.

It had been three days. Three days of obsessively checking his phone to see if Kise had read his message, three days of carefully composing messages to send Kise at perfectly timed intervals, three days of making up excuses for why Kise hadn’t replied. And Aomine had had enough.

He took a deep breath, muttered under his breath, “Hey, so you know what you said? Ugh, no, I sound like I'm threatening him... Hey, can I talk to you about the other day? Okay, nice and normal.” Then pressed dial on his phone.

The phone rang exactly once and then skipped to voicemail.

“Oh, um, hi, this is Aomine,” Aomine said, suddenly very aware of how his phone voice was an octave too high, “I, er, wanted to talk to you about what you said the other day, so, um, when you get the chance can you, er, call me back? Thanks. I, er, yeah thanks.”

Aomine hung up the phone, cursing himself for feeling so embarrassed all of a sudden. He’d told himself multiple times in these past three days to get over it. He was Aomine Daiki. He didn’t get embarrassed. He wasn't meant to get nervous. This was ridiculous.

But no matter how much he tried to pep talk himself out of his anxious state, he felt restless, and the urge to see Kise was beginning to really disrupt the flow of his everyday life. He thought about the man everywhere: in class, on the toilet, eating Maji burger, and even, _even_ while playing basketball. And on top of that, he had no desire to flick through his new Mai-chan magazine.

Things weren’t sitting right with Aomine and he knew that the only solution would be to sort things out with Kise—more specifically, to make Kise his. But when the man didn’t reply to any of his messages, sorting things out was not only difficult but damn near impossible. And if he didn’t respond to a voicemail, Aomine was officially out of ideas.

“I could go to his apartment but that Rakuzan guy is there...” Aomine thought aloud, chewing on a pocky stick as he stared at the sky. He was on Touou campus, stretched out on the green by the football pitch. It was by no means his usual hang-out place but the weather was lovely and crisp: not too cold for an October day. The grass was surprisingly soft and more than comfortable enough to act as good bedding.

“Dai-chan!”

Satsuki almost jumped on him, giving him as best a hug as she could while he was lying flat and horizontal on the ground.

“How are you?! How is everything?! I’m sorry I haven’t called to catch up since the whole conversation about Kise! The law department is planning this big Halloween get together thing and there’s so much to organize, it’s been really crazy!”

Satsuki paused, glancing down at Aomine who didn’t look as though he was listening. Sighing, she made herself comfortable and leaned as far back as she could while still sitting up.

“Have you talked to him?” she asked, letting her eyes trace the outlines of the clouds drifting by.

“Trying to,” Aomine mumbled. Saying it aloud somehow made it more real, and making it more real somehow made Aomine’s chest clench painfully.

“Has he read your messages?”

“Doesn’t say.”

“Have you tried calling him?”

“Yeah, just now.”

“He didn’t reply?”

“No, went to voicemail.”

“I see.”

They sat in silence for a while. It was just past lunchtime. Groups of students were making good use of the football pitch, some to practice their club activities (there was the juggling club, the taichi club, the cheerleading squad), others to lounge around and chat on picnic blankets with homemade lunches in bento boxes. Apart from the slight red on the edges of the leaves and the occasional chilly breeze, no one would ever guess that it was autumn.

“Do you want some advice?” Satsuki asked, rummaging in her bag for something. Aomine cast her a sidewards look from his position on the ground, took a deep breath then said miserably, “Yes.”

“I think, that we should contact Takao-kun.”

“Who?”

“Takao. Takao Kazunari. You know, the guy who got us in touch with Kise in the first place?”

 _So that’s the name of Kazunaricchi_ , Aomine thought.

“Why do we need to get in touch with that guy? He’s done his part,” Aomine muttered, scowling as he also recalled this ‘Kazunaricchi’ yelling at him outside Maji Burger. “I don’t want him involved in my business.”

“He’s already involved Dai-chan.” Satsuki looked down at Aomine disapprovingly. “And you should be grateful towards him for being the initial go-between. Now, I know you’re trying but I think you’re going to need his help.”

“Why?”

“You said Kise-kun’s not replying right?”

“Yeah...”

“I think he’s probably blocked you.”

Aomine would usually give no shits but suddenly he felt like his heart was a pin cushion, and someone had inserted a gazillion tiny, tiny pins into it all at once.

“Oh,” he said, staring straight up at the vast blue sky, wishing it’d just swallow him up.

“But I don’t think you should give up because of tha—

“But he obviously doesn’t want to speak to me, so maybe I should just—

“No, Dai-chan.” Satsuki’s voice was firm as she rested one hand on Aomine’s shoulder, her other hand gripping her phone. “There’s a misunderstanding between you two, and you are going to sort it out. You just need some help getting there and unfortunately, this time you’re going to need more than me, Kagamin or Tetsu-kun.”

There was no other way to describe what Aomine was feeling, apart from very, very sad. He heaved a sigh—he really hated this new sighing side of him he’d discovered since Kise—but reluctantly agreed to contact Takao.

-x-

“Again, I don’t know what was so important that we couldn’t just discuss this on the phone, but Takao and I are very busy, so could you please be quick with this. Might I remind you, Momoi, that I did not reluctantly give you my number at the Interhigh for these purposes,” Midorima said, arms folded and expression mildly grumpy. Takao peered into Midorima’s face until he was just an inch or two away, pausing where he was and staring up at Midorima without blinking. A vein in Midorima’s head started pulsing, growing more visible as the man’s annoyance increased. Eventually Midorima was forced to unfold his arms just so he had a free hand to push Takao’s face away from him, a blush spreading across the pale man’s cheeks. “Takao, please cease to be a constant nuisance.”

“D’aw Shin-chan.” Takao smiled a toothy grin. “Just wanted to loosen you up a bit.”

“Loosen me up a bit?” Midorima narrowed his eyes at the smaller man. “Takao. You are not taking practice seriously enough. We don’t have time to be here, sitting with these imbeciles—

“Hey, hey, hey,” Takao said, looking offended, “This guy here—

He gestured to Aomine.

—is an imbecile but Momoi-chan is very intelligent!”

Aomine’s fist tightened but Momoi laid a hand on his punching arm.

“Okay, we’ll cut to the chase,” she smiled pleasantly at both Takao and Midorima as she assumed the aura of a fit-for-all businesswoman, “Dai-chan is in love with Kise-kun, but Kise-kun thinks that Dai-chan rejected him and consequently (though this is a hypothesis), it’s highly likely that he has blocked Dai-chan’s number. So now we need to find a way for Dai-chan and Kise-kun to meet and talk things through. Do you have any idea how we might arrange that?”

“Kise is very busy this week,” Midorima said, refolding his arms, “You may not be aware of this, but the first episode of his drama is airing tomorrow and he has to film lots of live shows to promote it.”

“Yeah, he’s been _really_ busy this week,” Takao nodded, “Like his usual constant stream-of-consciousness messages have majorly decreased. He only does it during his lunch hour and breaks now.”

“When Kise isn’t busy, he messages Takao every few minutes,” Midorima explained.

Aomine wore a perpetual frown on his face, which didn’t go unnoticed by Takao, who spluttered with laughter before pressing a hand over his mouth.

“Aw man, wait till Ryou-chan messages _you_ every five minutes. I can tell you’re gonna _love_ it.” Takao’s smile was not malicious, but it was certainly mischievous. “Are you sure you’re going to be able to handle him?”

Aomine was about to growl a firm ‘Mind your own fucking business’ when Satsuki squeezed his arm so hard, her fingernails dug into his skin through his jacket.

“I think the issue is that we need to get them to talk. What happens after that is up to them, don’t you agree?”

Takao sat back in his seat and folded his arms so that he and Midorima mirrored one another. The Shuutoku pair examined the Touou pair coolly.

“Well, Momoi-chan, here's the thing. I’m not sure I do agree.” Takao spoke slowly and deliberately. Apart from raising an eyebrow his countenance did not change. “You see, you weren’t there after _this guy_ screwed him over. He was a crying mess and we were the ones who had to pick him up. Shin-chan here was planning on studying, practicing ball, then taking me out for dinner in the evening—

Midorima’s head snapped side-wards as his blush deepened, his expression indignant but only partially angry.

—but he couldn’t do any of those things he _really wanted_ to do, because he— _we_ —had to spend the entire afternoon and evening feeding Ryou-chan ice cream and herbal tea.”

Takao paused, glaring at Aomine for a few seconds before letting out a frustrated sigh. He uncrossed his arms and rested his elbows on the table, propping his chin up with one hand. “As a note for the future by the way, he really likes herbal tea. He finds the smell smoothing. Jasmine in particular. But green tea most days. Anyway, all I’m saying is that I want proof that you’re going to be good to Ryou-chan. I don’t want to help you if it means that I’m gonna walk out of class to find this sad gorgeous mess waiting for me again. Apart from it being a huge inconvenience for my dear Shin-chan here, Ryou-chan’s too good for that shit.”

Takao redirected his gaze from Aomine to Momoi. “I’m sure you understand what it’s like to protect a friend. I’m not going to help you if this is just going to end in heartache for my man.”

“I understand and accept your point,” Momoi replied without pause. She also leaned forward, placing her elbows on the table and lacing her fingers together. “I promise, on behalf of Aomine Daiki, that he will treasure Kise Ryouta, and will treat him with the respect and attention that he is due.”

“What will he do when Ryou-chan calls in the middle of the night, complaining about having just gotten out of the studio?”

“Aomine Daiki will pick up the call and respond accordingly.”

“Define ‘accordingly’.”

“Where appropriate, he will offer words of consolation. Even if inappropriate, he will offer words of affection. Always.”

Momoi and Takao maintained tense eye contact until Takao broke into a broad smile and offered his hand to Momoi.

“Deal! I trust you have a good team behind you.”

“Yes, there are two other very reliable people who will keep Dai-chan in check.”

“Oh you’re so lucky! It’s just Shin-chan and me on this end of things and Ryou-chan’s quite a handful so we could do with a third person. Do you think you’d be willing to take on another one? I think Ryou-chan would really, really like you.”

“Oh it’s no trouble, but I mean we’d have to get to know each other first and see if we click.”

“I’m 99% sure he’d love you, but I understand. Well it’s great doing business with you!”

Momoi and Takao shook hands enthusiastically, and all Aomine could do was watch as his anger and impatience steadily increased. 

“Will there be due compensation should Aomine fail to meet the requirements of this agreement?”

It was the last straw when Midorima decided to join in on the transaction.

“Oh for fuck’s sake, what is this?!” Aomine shouted, feeling at once insulted, embarrassed and not at all closer to sorting things out with Kise. “I’m glad you’re all having a great time agreeing on the details of my love life, but aren’t you forgetting the point here? I need to speak to Kise. You’re all wasting my time.”

“Oh, he has a temper,” Takao muttered to Midorima, who muttered back, “Terrible temper.”

“Dai-chan’s right though.” Momoi sighed. She squeezed Aomine’s arm again, this time reassuringly. “Do you have any idea how we might catch him? Do you think it’s as simple as you sending him a message for us?”

“I suppose it could be that simple,” Takao said carefully, smirking, “But I’m not sure that’d be very fun.”

“I don’t want fun,” Aomine said, glowering, “I want to talk.”

“As we have already said, Kise is very busy,” said Midorima, “He doesn’t have time to see and speak with just anyone.”

“I’m not just anyone,” Aomine hissed.

“You are at the moment,” Takao replied curtly. “If you want to see him before the end of next week, it’s going to have to be work-related. _You’re_ going to have to be work-related. Now, I think I know a way of getting you into Ryou-chan’s workplace, but it’s going to take a little bit of...reshuffling things on our end. Shin-chan, what do you think about Tanaka-san?”

“Tanaka-san?” Midorima frowned for a moment, before his eyebrows relaxed and his expression reset to neutral. “Tanaka-san...is a good choice, I believe. Yes.”

“Good! Tanaka-san it is. Anyway, are you free on Sunday?”

 _Sunday? Tanaka-san?_ Aomine was very confused. However, by this point he was getting accustomed to the confusion and so, disregarding the afternoon’s four hour basketball practice Nijimura had pressed onto the Touou team that Sunday, he replied, “Yeah I’m free.”

“Brilliant! Turn up at Nippon Entertainment Studio in Shibuya at 6:30AM sharp. Wear...what you’re wearing now. Yeah, that’s a good casual look isn’t it, Shin-chan?”

Midorima nodded. “Very casual.”

“There’ll be a lady waiting in reception for you who’ll give you a pass to enter the main building so you can see Ryou-chan.”

Aomine waited but neither Takao nor Midorima elaborated any further. Frustrated, Aomine turned to Satsuki and gestured with his arms. She nodded, looking concerned. 

“Takao-kun, we very much appreciate you helping us get Dai-chan and Kise-kun to meet, but could you tell us more about your plan?” Satsuki paused then added in a tone that was only slightly tongue-in-cheek. “As we’ll be business partners from now on, we’ll have to act on a policy of absolute trust. Please trust us with your plan so there’ll be no nasty surprises for us.”

Takao whistled then turned to Midorima, as though asking for approval. Midorima looked at Takao, turned his head as if to dismiss him but said all the same, “Do as you wish, Takao.”

“Fine.” Takao’s smile returned to his face in full force and it was almost ( _but not really_ , Aomine thought proudly) as sparkly as Kise’s. “Shin-chan and I are gonna feed Tanaka-san some gone-off sushi then when they ring me asking if I can fill in for him, I’m gonna say I ate the same sushi as Tanaka-san then redirect them to you, Aomine-kun.”

“You haven’t told them who Tanaka-san is, Takao,” Midorima stated, saving Momoi the trouble.

“Oh! Tanaka-san is Ryou-chan’s Sunday assistant. Actually, maybe assistant is a bit much. He’s more like a runner, an errand boy. Except you can’t really call him a boy, I mean, he’s like, 40 years old. But anyway, we’re gonna make him sick. I’m usually the substitute runner, but this time I’m going to recommend you for the job. You go in, surprise Ryou-chan, and confess! It’s gonna be great!”

Aomine, who had never worked a day in his life, gulped.

“Is...Can I leave after I confess to Kise?”

“What a stupid question,” Midorima snorted.

“Of course you can’t leave!” Takao continued. “It’s a job! _Your_ job for the day! And it’s our gift to you—you get to spend the entire day with Ryou-chan! Don’t tell me that’s not what you want, because, Momoi-chan, I believe that is against the terms we agreed on a moment ago.”

“That is...correct, yes,” Satsuki replied.

“Then it’s settled.” Takao rested a hand on Midorima’s arm. Midorima seemed surprisingly at ease with the physical contact. “6:30AM. Sunday. Shibuya Nippon Entertainment Studio. Don’t let us down, Aomine-kun.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The end is nigh... Thanks so much for reading and thank you for 100 kudos!! (๑•̀ㅂ•́)و✧ I don't know what else to do but litter the end notes with kaomoji (´▽`) '`,、'`,、


	7. Kise Ryouta's Biggest Fan

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Aomine gets himself a hot celebrity boyfriend and a lifetime ban from the studio.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the delay in update! I rewrote this three times and caught a bad cold (T-T )
> 
> Anyway, hope you enjoy it and as always, thanks for reading :D

“So here is your pass and a map of the studio for you. Now if you’ll please follow me, I’ll show you to the circus.”

A lady with short black hair gave Aomine a well-practiced smile then turned on her heels and started talking into her headset.

“No, he’s not wearing pink today. I said no! Go for light yellow...No it’s not gonna clash, are you crazy? Have you even seen his past shoots before?...Mm. Okay, bringing the errand boy up now, be right with you.”

They stepped into the open elevator. The woman whose name Aomine had promptly forgotten the moment she’d told him, pressed the number seven. The door closed and Aomine felt his stomach do a backflip. He hoped it was because the elevator was going up and not because of his nerves.

“So you done any of this kinda work before?” The woman asked, still smiling but staring straight ahead of her. Her relentless smile reminded Aomine of Imayoshi and he wondered if perhaps they weren’t related somehow.

“Er, not really,” Aomine muttered. His neck was stiff from having slept poorly. As he clicked it, he stuffed his hands in his pockets and stared hard at the metal of the elevator doors. After a brief and awkward pause, the woman laughed and smiled her unmoving smile at Aomine, then patted him on the back.

“Well Kise-san’s really nice so you don’t have to be so nervous! Come on this way.”

As though her voice had commanded them to do so, the elevator doors slid open and the woman stepped out, not even sparing a glance behind her to check Aomine was following. They hurried down the long sterile corridors with grey floors, grey walls and no natural sunlight until at last they reached what Aomine would have otherwise thought to be a fire exit.

“Take a deep breath,” she said, a playful lilt in her voice as she pushed the bar in the middle of the door. It swung open, releasing a wave of noise that crashed into Aomine at full force. All of a sudden he felt very awake as they entered, narrowly dodging a woman who was pushing a cart heaped with empty cups and half eaten sandwiches across the room. A stylist threw a hairbrush over Aomine's head to another stylist, who caught it and promptly ran over to a corner of the big room where a young woman was reading a magazine and sipping some ice tea. She looked familiar; she'd been on that commercial for Kise's drama. 

“TEN MINUTES EVERYONE. We're going live in fifteen so they have to be down in TEN. MINUTES.”

A guy with a headset and a very loud voice shouted through some rolled-up sheets of paper. It was like someone had pressed fast forward. The commotion in the room sped up as everyone continued doing what they had already been doing, but just a little more frantically. Yet despite the chaos, it took no effort at all to find Kise, not so much because of his stand-out hair as because he was sat very still, right in the middle of the room. Pale and shirtless, Kise was reclining in his chair with a make-up artist fussing over how to apply his mascara. He blinked blankly at the ceiling. The Imayoshi-esque woman made a beeline towards him as Aomine tried to keep his breathing as even as possible.

_You’re an athlete, Daiki. Few steps aren’t going to make you breathless._

But they did, and when they arrived by Kise’s side and the make-up artist let him sit up to look at them, a thick silence beat against Aomine’s eardrums. Kise's brow creased ever so slightly as various emotions took turns wandering through his eyes. Surprise blended into confusion and then a sliver of something like hate, mixed with sadness, which disappeared into a strange sort of joy. Kise smiled politely then held out his hand and said, “And who is this?”

For a moment Aomine actually thought Kise had forgotten him. He’d woken up early, come all this way, gone to all the trouble and in the space of a week or so Kise had gotten over any feelings he’d had for Aomine, and forgotten him. But then he saw the wide smirk and heard the chuckle Kise tried to suppress, and realized: _this guy is messing with me_.

“Kise-san, Tanaka-san and Takao-kun are both sick with food poisoning today. They went out for sushi yesterday night apparently—not a good decision. But Takao-kun said he had a friend who’s been waiting for an opportunity to work with you for a while so he’ll be filling in today.” The woman gestured to Aomine to introduce himself.

“Aomine Daiki.” Aomine strode forward, suddenly confident, and took Kise's hand. “Big fan.”

 _I don’t watch your drama and I own none of your photobooks but I’m a big fan of your ass,_ Aomine thought to himself, a smirk adorning his lips. Kise raised an eyebrow and squeezed his hand:  _hard_.

 _Is that a challenge?_ Aomine thought, frowning and squeezing back. Though both their knuckles were white with the force of their grip on one another, Kise’s expression didn’t change.

“Always a pleasure to meet a _big fan_ , Aomine-kun,” Kise smiled and maybe it was Aomine’s imagination but his teeth sparkled almost maliciously.

“Oh yeah, I’m your _biggest_ fan,” Aomine replied with an equally malignant smile.

Just as their handshake was getting suspiciously long, Kise let go and Aomine followed. The idol’s gaze was cool as he regarded Aomine—but that coolness was gone in the blink of an eye, as though it had never been there, as Kise said with a sunny smile and the gracefulness of a Prince, “Please take good care of me today!”

The sparkles that appeared around Kise’s head looked like glowing ninja stars that were out for Aomine’s throat. But Aomine wasn’t about to get _scared_. Not when Kise so obviously wanted him to ( _the douchebag_ ). If Kise was trying to test or prove something, Aomine was ready. So in the steadfast stubbornness so typical of the Touou ace, he stood his ground.

“I’ll do my best!” Aomine said, a little too insistently and a little too loudly. A flicker of surprise lit up in Kise’s eyes before he smiled—this time far more genuinely.

“Okay so your main task Aomine-kun,” the woman began, steering his attention away from Kise, who promptly reclined in his chair again so the make-up artist could finish doing whatever it was to his face, “Kise-san likes herbal tea to get him through the mornings, so I want you to go down to the café in the basement and get him some jasmine. He has jasmine first and then camomile before lunch, then a latte post-lunch, which must be accompanied by a mint, and then if you can make sure he always has a supply of juice, apple water, maybe a sports drink or something, you know, something refreshing, in his bag over there—

She pointed at a gym bag over by a couch otherwise steeped with clothes.

—then that’d be fabulous. All right, I’m gonna have to go sort this shirt business out but if you could get to it, would greatly appreciate it. Might have a few other errands for you during the day but we’ll let you know about those later. For now, please keep Kise-san and the team hydrated. Ask everyone if they need a coffee. Here’s a pen and paper. WE’RE MOVING DOWN TO THE RECORDING STUDIO IN EIGHT MINUTES PEOPLE.”

Staring for a moment at the pen and paper in his hand as the woman disappeared into the throngs of people rushing around them, Aomine turned to the make-up artist and said hesitantly, “So...would you like a coffee?”

“Yes please. Black, no sugar.” She said, beckoning for the hair stylist with incredibly voluminous hair who’d been frantically flicking through some magazines to come over.

“I want tea, not the green kind, skimmed milk only please and three sugars,” the stylist said.

“Er...”

Aomine quickly scribbled down ‘make-up woman, black no sugar,’ then ‘big hair man, other tea, milk, sugars.’ This was going to be a long day. Ready to go ask just a handful of other people if they needed drinks (he only had two hands after all), he glanced down at Kise who was still reclined and blinking at the ceiling, and hoped that at some point during the day they’d get a chance to speak alone. As the hair stylist made Kise sit up and started ruffling his hair, Kise pulled on Aomine’s sleeve.

“If you want me to sign anything, y’know, seeing as you’re my _biggest fan_ , then let me know.”

Aomine didn’t miss the playful glint in Kise’s eyes and felt the tension in his shoulders ease just a little at how happy Kise looked to see him.

 

-x-

 

The coffee was a disaster. It turned out there was more than one make-up woman and that the original ‘big hair man’ was actually allergic to full fat milk, so he’d had a reaction and had to be sent to hospital when Aomine had neglected to specify to the barista. Aomine remembered Satsuki’s endless wisdom though (“never admit you did it, Dai-chan. Unless it’s murder, or they have proof and you need to be sentenced to jail or something, never admit it.”), and promptly denied everything. In the end (and mostly because the man lived), everyone passed it off as ‘just an unfortunate accident’ and said nothing more of it.

“My jasmine tea was nice though,” Kise said, squeezing Aomine’s arm. Aomine felt himself melt a little inside and was instantly disgusted with himself.

Kise’s 7am appearance on a live Sunday breakfast show with his co-star lasted all the way until 9:30. They answered a joint interview, and commented on some light and interesting news topics (such as the announcement that dogs were officially more popular than cats in Japan, according to a recent survey). They then stayed for the segment when the breakfast show’s very own chef would teach the viewers at home how to cook a brunch dish.

“We made your favorite onion gratin soup for our Sunday Brunch Special today, Kise-san!” The cheerful female presenter said, lifting the lid to the bowl and showing the camera a steaming pot of soup. There was a chorus of ums and ahs from the audience as they also admired the creamy soup.

“Oh my god, it smells delicious!” Kise inhaled deeply, practically sparkling with glee. Aomine watched from the sidelines, scowl attached and arms crossed as he wondered how anyone could get so excited over onion soup.

When they finished broadcasting, Kise spent ten minutes or so thanking the presenters of the show then another ten talking to his female co-star before he was ushered into the backroom. One man held his coat out for him and another handed him a hat and some sunglasses.

“Errand boy!” shouted one of the men who was already steering Kise out of the door, “We’re moving to the building next door to do some filming! Get Kise’s camomile tea from the café on the corner and a couple of croissants for the rest of us then meet us on the fifth floor!”

“Yeah, yeah,” Aomine grumbled, not bothering to hide his boredom and irritation. As he trudged toward the elevator, he pictured a man with black curtained hair and a cheeky smile, and muttered under his breath, "I just wanted to talk to him but nooo, _this will be more fun_ he says. Bastard.”

After a short jog to the corner of the street where he found a café decorated completely in lime green, Aomine purchased the required croissants and the camomile tea, then jogged swiftly back. His plan to get back to Kise as soon as possible, however, was thwarted when he got held up by some security men who were convinced that his grumpy demeanor and semi-permanent scowl were signs that he was a 'suspicious person.' After a twenty minute struggle of trying to convince the men that his pass was real, Aomine was eventually let through into the second building when the receptionist made some phone calls up to Kise’s people.

When he reached the fifth floor, he was greeted with a spectacle.

Aomine knew something was wrong the minute he entered the room and heard a man with a walkie-talkie say, “Yeah we’re gonna need first aid up here.” Suddenly worried about Kise’s well-being, he made his way immediately over to a small huddle of people crouched down on the floor in front of a green screen.

“Is he okay?” He asked hesitantly as three different people helped Kise sit up. His hair was gelled back in the style that Aomine remembered from the commercial, and he was wearing a shiny suit that looked cheap. More importantly, however, he was clutching his eye and his nose was bleeding.

“The fuck happened?!”

Kise’s colleagues jumped at Aomine’s sudden aggression. Kise looked up at Aomine with his good eye and smiled bitterly.

“We’re refilming a scene for the drama, and they decide to hire this douchebag.” He gestured to a guy with silver hair and a snarl, who was being reprimanded by someone who looked like the director. Aomine made to stand up, his fist ready. But Kise stopped him by grabbing his wrist. “Up-and-coming delinquent-turned-actor Haizaki Shougo apparently, but if you ask me he can’t tell fact from fiction. He was meant to pretend to punch me, not actually hit me.”

“I’m gonna get him,” Aomine growled, making the female colleague holding Kise’s arm squeak with the scary aura he was giving off. However, Kise laughed and shifted his hand from holding Aomine’s wrist to holding his clenched fist.

“Why don’t you go get me my post-lunch latte instead? I think I need the caffeine.”

“But he—

“I’d like my latte please, Aominecchi.”

Kise gave him a 'look.' With an unhappy grunt Aomine got up, stuffing the cup of camomile tea into another staff member’s free hand before he stormed out of the room, glaring at Haizaki on the way out. And if any of the staff thought something was wrong with their errand boy, Kise excused it with a flippant, “He’s my biggest fan.”

 

-x-

 

Aomine couldn’t not do it. There’d been a long line for coffee in the studio café as it appeared that a morning conference of some sort had just ended, and Aomine had just made it to the front of the line and made his order when the grey-haired bastard appeared, speaking casually with a shorter boy who looked like he’d been forced to accompany him.

“I mean, they can say what they want but I’ll insist it was an accident,” the man said arrogantly, hands in his pockets, “S’not my fault that stupid idiot’s face is so fucking annoying after all. _I just had to hit him._ ”

That was the last straw. Not entirely aware of what he was doing, Aomine strode over to the two, scaring the living daylights out of the grey-haired man’s companion who’d seen him coming. Then he put all his frustration—at not having been able to speak to Kise properly, at finding himself doing constant tea and coffee runs, at having this jerkface think he could just hurt Kise like that—into his basketball veteran fist.

One knuckle-breaking punch later and the man was down.

A deathly silence followed. Then suddenly, a gasp and an explosion of chatter as the people around them realized what had just happened.

“Isn’t that Haizaki Shougo?”

“Who’s the blue-haired guy?!”

“Oh my God, is he alive?!”

“Someone,” the boy said, checking Haizaki’s pulse, “get security!”

Flight or fight. And Aomine flew.

He grabbed the coffee from the barista who stood gaping at the man on the floor, slammed some change on the counter then ran the rest of the way to the fifth floor where countless staff members stared at him in his panicked and breathless state, half-listening to some announcement from security come through on their radios and headsets.

“Kise...where...?”

A staff member pointed in the direction of Kise’s dressing room.

Aomine didn’t bother knocking. He ran into Kise’s room, shut the door behind him, locked it, managed to kick a chair in the way to buy himself some time (just in case) then flung himself at the blond, who sat alone and startled by his dressing table.

“Aominecchi,” Kise said, not sure what to do as the taller man clung to him. “Are you okay?”

“Shit no,” Aomine said, placing the coffee down on the table and grabbing Kise’s shoulders so that they were looking each other in the eye. “I think I just killed a man.”

“You did what?!”

One of Kise’s amber eyes widened, his other too swollen to move.

“Wha—when?! I sent you to get coffee!”

“I got the coffee!” Aomine gestured to the cup. “But I saw him. That douchebag. In the café. And then he said he did it on purpose and then I punched him, and he was on the floor and the boy called security so I ran!”

“They called security so you ran?!” Kise looked shocked. But then the edges of his lips twitched and he burst out laughing, clutching his stomach as his eyes filled with tears. “Oh my god why the hell did you run, this is hilarious.”

“It’s not hilarious! I just killed a guy!”

“Eh, Shougo-kun has a thick skull, I doubt you killed him but it sounds like you got him good,” Kise said, still laughing. He wiped the tears from his eyes then gave Aomine a big hug, nuzzling his bruised face into the side of Aomine’s neck. “Thank you for protecting me. I’d expect nothing less from you. My biggest fan. My fan who is the most big. The biggest fan who is mine.”

The bluenette frowned, wondering if Kise might be concussed. But Kise just grinned and kissed him on the cheek.

“I like you,” he whispered into Aomine’s ear. “I really like you. Even though you suck. Even though you’re the suckiest. Even though you’re the most suck—

Aomine caught Kise’s open mouth with his own to shut him up. Tongue sliding expertly in, he easily overwhelmed the blond with the enthusiasm of his kiss until he pulled away abruptly, earning a small whine of disappointment from Kise.

“You ruined it,” Aomine said quietly, surprising even himself at how soft he sounded, “I was meant to tell you that.”

“That I like you?” Kise asked, tilting his head to the side. His swollen eye was ruining his good looks, but call him twisted, Aomine thought it only made him cuter.

“No...” Aomine gave Kise a small peck on the lips and smiled fondly at him. “That _I_ like _you_.”

He kissed Kise again, more leisurely this time, enjoying the softness of the other’s lips. Expecting his cheek to get wet or to taste salt at any moment as he was pretty sure Kise was a crybaby after all, Aomine frowned when the tears never came, and feeling hesitant, he pulled away.

“You like me,” Kise said, a broad smile plastered onto his face. He poked Aomine's cheek and repeated, “ _You_ like _me_!”

Aomine felt the blush creep up to his tanned cheeks and was unsure as to whether Kise was mocking him, or whether he really was concussed. 

 _Maybe I should get him to the hospital or something..._ Aomine thought. He began to stand up when Kise wrapped his arms around his neck and pushed their lips together again.

“Say the rest of it then!” Kise said, pouting and looking impatient. “I want to hear the rest of it!”

“Huh? What rest of it? I think we need to get you to the hospital..."

“No! You're doing this all wrong," Kise huffed, puffing out his cheeks, which complimented his swollen eye fantastically. "You're meant to say, _please be with me forever Kise. I love you. And you're the most handsome man ever, even more handsome than I am, and before I met you I thought the only one who was better looking than me is me!"_

Kise's impression of Aomine was surprisingly accurate, and as Kise burst out laughing, biting his lip and looking more and more like a child who had just found out they were going to Disneyland, Aomine resisted the urge to flick him in the face, and even reconsidered what the grey-haired guy had said earlier, about wanting to punch his pretty face. Eyes narrow slits as he tried to pull himself away from Kise's grip, Kise held on and sighed contently.

“You know you’re pretty scary looking,” the blond cooed, his good eye half-lidded. He leaned into Aomine, pressing his lips onto the ace's and angling his head so that he'd miss his bruised nose. His lips were like cushions, soft even as they took Aomine's lower lip and sucked gently on them. 

“You’re not concussed, are you,” Aomine said flatly when Kise pulled away.

“Just say it already,” Kise laughed.

“Date me, jackass,” Aomine growled, sure that he was blushing so hard by now that no tan could ever hide it. Kise smirked. It was a self-satisfied smirk and one that, despite his half-beaten face, was deliciously and devilishly handsome. 

“I guess I could do that.”

Aomine’s eye twitched. Before he could tell Kise to _bite me_ and smooch him aggressively senseless, suddenly there was a knock on the door. A taunt, familiar voice called out, “Ryou-chan. If you’re done in there then can you please let us in so I can take you to the hospital and security can arrest Aomine-kun.”

“Just a minute, Reo-nee!” Kise shouted. He stroked just by Aomine’s eye where the twitch had been and whispered, “When I open the door, I’m going to collide into Reo-nee and the two security guys. You turn left and keep running. Go down the stairs until you get to the second floor. From there it’d be better to take the outdoor fire escape down. You get away for now; I’ll sort out all the technical stuff when I get back from the hospital. You wanna regroup later tonight for dinner?”

“Okay,” Aomine grinned. He liked Kise giving direct orders. “Maji Burger at six?”

“For our first date?!” Kise tried to look offended but failed when his smile won over. “How did you know I love that place?”

As the knocking on the door grew more persistent and a man who wasn’t Mibuchi started to threaten to kick it down, Kise squeezed Aomine’s hand and mouthed, ‘Are you ready?’ They maintained eye contact, grinning at one another.

 _This is crazy_ , Aomine thought, _he’s crazy._ We’re _fucking crazy._

Just like he said he would, Kise opened the door and flung his over 6 foot tall self at the men, making them stumble and knocking one smaller man off his feet entirely. Aomine laughed as he heard Mibuchi curse him (something he was sure he’d have to get used to), and it occurred to him then that he was probably never going to be ready for a relationship with this strange and beautiful man. But there he was, running for his life and navigating a building he barely understood, grinning like a maniac—and he hadn’t exactly been expecting this either. Ready or not, he was dating Kise Ryouta now, and he supposed he could get used to it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ahahaha, the ending is so cheesy and silly, but in the spirit of this entire fic... ~~so sorry orz~~. 
> 
> Here, have an NG scene I took out, where Aokise actually thought they'd killed Shougo:
> 
> Kise: We gotta bury the body.  
> Aomine: Kise that’s crazy talk. I mean, we should go to the police. I should turn myself in. Oh God, I wanted to be a policeman...  
> Kise: ...We gotta cut his body into tiny pieces and bury him.  
> Aomine: ...Kise what the fuck.  
> Kise: Hahaha! Aominecchi you scaredy cat! I was just kidding about cutting him up...but we do have to bury his body.
> 
> ...I like to think Aokise would be that baka couple that'd panic and be atrocious at getting away with murder, hahaha. But sorry, I’ll shut up now. Thanks again for sticking with this and for all the lovely support! I hope that it was worth your time, and maybe next time I can try and write something a bit more serious...f(^^; )

**Author's Note:**

> Does this remind you of Notting Hill? It reminds me of Notting Hill (I don't remember what happens in Notting Hill though, hah).


End file.
